Pheidole albipes

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Pheidole albipes
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Tribe: Attini
Genus: Pheidole
Species: P. albipes
Binomial name
Pheidole albipes
Wilson, 2003

Pheidole albipes jtlc000010035 profile 1.jpg

Pheidole albipes jtlc000010035 dorsal 1.jpg

Specimen labels

At the type locality, in degraded lowland forest, I found two colonies nesting in small rotting tree branches in the ground leaf litter, and another colony under the bark of a large rotten log. (Wilson 2003)

Identification

See the description in the nomenclature section.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Southern Mexico: known from several lowland forested localities in Veracruz, and from forest 7 km south of Valle Nacional, Oaxaca, at 450 m. (Wilson 2003)

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 20.8335° to 15.5123738°.

 
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Neotropical Region: Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico (type locality).

Distribution based on AntMaps

AntMapLegend.png

Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Countries Occupied

Number of countries occupied by this species based on AntWiki Regional Taxon Lists. In general, fewer countries occupied indicates a narrower range, while more countries indicates a more widespread species.
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Estimated Abundance

Relative abundance based on number of AntMaps records per species (this species within the purple bar). Fewer records (to the left) indicates a less abundant/encountered species while more records (to the right) indicates more abundant/encountered species.
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Biology

Castes

Worker

Minor

Images from AntWeb

Pheidole albipes jtlc000009724 head 1.jpgPheidole albipes jtlc000009724 profile 1.jpgPheidole albipes jtlc000009724 dorsal 1.jpgPheidole albipes jtlc000009724 profile 2.jpgPheidole albipes jtlc000009724 label 1.jpg
Worker. Specimen code jtlc000009724. Photographer J. Russ, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by JTLC.

Major

Images from AntWeb

Pheidole albipes jtlc000010035 head 2.jpg
Worker (major/soldier). Specimen code jtlc000010035. Photographer J. Russ, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by JTLC.

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

  • albipes. Pheidole albipes Wilson, 2003: 367, figs. (s.w.) MEXICO.

Unless otherwise noted the text for the remainder of this section is reported from the publication that includes the original description.

Description

A small, strikingly colored species of the flavens group, similar in various traits to Pheidole alticola, Pheidole chalca, Pheidole ebenina, Pheidole euryscopa, Pheidole lustrata, Pheidole monteverdensis, Pheidole palenquensisand Pheidole servilia, differing as follows.

Major: reddish brown with strongly contrasting pale yellow tibiae and tarsi, and head bicolorous; region between eye and occipital border irregularly rugoreticulate, occipital margins and center of clypeus smooth and shiny, and rest of dorsal surface of head carinulate; almost all of mesosoma smooth and shiny; humerus subangulate in dorsal-oblique view; postpetiole diamond-shaped from above.

Minor: almost all of head and body smooth and shiny; occiput broad and strongly concave; humerus subdenticulate in dorsal-oblique view.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Holotype major: HW 0.60, HL 0.64, SL 0.38, EL 0.10, PW 0.34. Paratype minor: HW 0.38, HL 0.40, SL 0.36, EL 0.06, PW 0.24.

COLOR Major: body, coxae, and femora medium reddish brown; head anterior to eyes yellow; antennae, tibiae, and tarsi pale yellow.

Minor: head and body medium brown; coxae and femora light brown; antennae, tibiae, and tarsi very pale yellow, almost white.


Pheidole albipes Wilson 2003.jpg

Figure. Upper: holotype, major. Lower: paratype, minor. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Type Material

MEXICO: Pueblo Nuevo, near Tetzonapa, Veracruz, col. E. O. Wilson. Museum of Comparative Zoology

Etymology

L albipes, white-footed.

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

  • Ahuatzin D. A., E. J. Corro, A. Aguirre Jaimes, J. E. Valenzuela Gonzalez, R. Machado Feitosa, M. Cezar Ribeiro, J. Carlos Lopez Acosta, R. Coates, W. Dattilo. 2019. Forest cover drives leaf litter ant diversity in primary rainforest remnants within human-modified tropical landscapes. Biodiversity and Conservation 28(5): 1091-1107.
  • Dattilo W. et al. 2019. MEXICO ANTS: incidence and abundance along the Nearctic-Neotropical interface. Ecology https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2944
  • Longino J. T. L., and M. G. Branstetter. 2018. The truncated bell: an enigmatic but pervasive elevational diversity pattern in Middle American ants. Ecography 41: 1-12.
  • Longino J. et al. ADMAC project. Accessed on March 24th 2017 at https://sites.google.com/site/admacsite/
  • Vásquez-Bolaños M. 2011. Lista de especies de hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) para México. Dugesiana 18: 95-133
  • Wilson, E.O. 2003. Pheidole in the New World: A Dominant, Hyperdiverse Genus. Harvard University Press