Pheidole gilvescens

Pheidole gilvescens
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Myrmicinae
Tribe:	Attini
Genus:	Pheidole
Species:	P. gilvescens
Binomial name
Pheidole gilvescens Creighton & Gregg, 1955 Specimen Label

In southern California, Snelling and George (1979) found gilvescens common at 150–1500 m in grassland, creosote bush scrub, wash woodlands, and joshua tree woodlands. Small crater nests are built in sand and are often surrounded by chaff. The colonies contain up to 500 workers. The ants are primarily granivorous but also collect arthropods, apparently as scavengers. Repletes are occasionally found. Foraging begins at dusk, continues through the night, and ends early in the morning. Winged queens have been found in nests in late May, and males in May and September. (Wilson 2003)

At a Glance

• Replete Workers

Identification

See the description in the nomenclature section.

Keys including this Species

• Key to Pheidole pilifera group
• Key to US Pheidole

Distribution

Creighton and Gregg (1955) and Wheeler and Wheeler (1986) report the species (and I have mostly confirmed) as occurring from south-central Arizona through southern Nevada to the eastern slope of the California Sierras. (Wilson 2003)

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 39.472762° to 29.24768°.

North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

• Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Nearctic Region: United States (type locality).
Neotropical Region: Mexico.

Distribution based on AntMaps

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.

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.

Biology

The type specimens, which appear to have been strays, came from Phoenix and Tucson. The insect is quite scarce in both stations, its main range lying further west as the following records show: ARIZONA: Organpipe Cactus National Monument, Headquarters (1600'); Growler Mountains, Abra Wash (1300'); Quitobaquito (900'); 5 miles east of Aguila (2200'). CALIFORNIA: 21 miles east of Indio (1600'); 9 miles north of Llano (2800'); Bartlett (3700'); Yaqui Well, Anza Desert State Park (1300'); Borrego Wells (300'). A single colony was taken by the senior author in each of these stations except at Abra Wash in the Growler Mountains, where eight colonies were secured. The nests of Pheidole gilvescens are invariably small, often containing no more than half a dozen majors and two or three dozen minors. The insect shows little tendency to forage in files, and the majors rarely leave the nest. (Creighton and Gregg 1959)

Langen et al. (2000) examined aggression between colonies by placing sets of workers from different colonies together in an arena. The source population for the studied colonies were from Mojave Bajada habitat within the Eastern Mojave desert (San Bernardino Co., Calfornia). Levels of aggression were found to be higher for non-neighboring colonies, i.e., those greater than 2.6 m apart.

Flight Period

							X
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

Source: antkeeping.info.

• Check details at Worldwide Ant Nuptial Flights Data, AntNupTracker and AntKeeping.

 Explore: Show all Flight Month data or Search these data. See also a list of all data tables or learn how data is managed.

Castes

Worker

Minor

Images from AntWeb

Worker. Specimen code casent0005760. Photographer April Nobile, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by UCDC, Davis, CA, USA.

Major

.	Owned by Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Nomenclature

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

• gilvescens. Pheidole gilvescens Creighton & Gregg, 1955: 5 (s.w.) U.S.A. [First available use of Pheidole xerophila subsp. tucsonica var. gilvescens Wheeler, W.M. 1908e: 448; unavailable name.] See also: Wilson, 2003: 577.

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

Description

From Wilson (2003): DIAGNOSIS A small, large-eyed member of the pilifera group, close to Pheidole xerophila and distinguished from it as follows.

Major: body almost entirely reddish yellow; postpetiolar node transversely oval in shape; sides of pronotum carinulate.

Minor: entirely yellow (as opposed to yellowish brown).

With xerophila, the entire head of the major tapers conspicuously from midlevel to the occiput in side view.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Lectotype major: HW 1.42, HL 1.48, SL 0.66, EL 0.22, PW 0.66. Paralectotype minor: HW 0.58, HL 0.80, SL 0.52, EL 0.18, PW 0.32.

COLOR Major: body and appendages dark reddish yellow; gaster partly light brown.

Minor: body medium yellow, appendages pale yellow.

Figure. Lectotype, major. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Lectotype Specimen Labels

Type Material

From Wilson (2003): ARIZONA: Tucson, col. W. M. Wheeler. Museum of Comparative Zoology and American Museum of Natural History - as reported in Wilson (2003)

Etymology

L gilvescens, pale yellow, pertaining to the color of the minor, distinguishing the species from Pheidole xerophila. (Wilson 2003)

References

• Wilson, E. O. 2003. Pheidole in the New World: A dominant, hyperdiverse ant genus. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. (page 577, fig. major, minor described)
• Alatorre-Bracamontes, C.E., Vásquez-Bolaños, M. 2010. Lista comentada de las hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) del norte de México. Dugesiana 17(1): 9-36.
• Creighton, W. S.; Gregg, R. E. 1955. New and little-known species of Pheidole (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Univ. Colo. Stud. Ser. Biol. 3: 1-46 (page 5, soldier, worker described)
• Fournier, D., de Biseau, J.-C., De Laet, S., Lenoir, A., Passera, L., Aron, S. 2016. Social structure and genetic distance mediate nestmate recognition and aggressiveness in the facultative polygynous ant Pheidole pallidula. PLOS ONE 11, e0156440. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0156440).
• Langen, T. A., F. Tripet, and P. Nonacs. 2000. The red and the black: habituation and the dear-enemy phenomenon in two desert Pheidole ants. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 48(6):285-292. doi:10.1007/s002650000223
• Ruano, F., Tinaut, A., Soler, J.J. 2000. High surface temperatures select for individual foraging in ants. Behavioral Ecology 11, 396-404.
• Snelling, R. R. and C. D. George. 1979. The taxonomy, distribution and ecology of California desert ants. Report to California Desert Plan Program, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Dept. Interior., 335 + 89 pp.
• Wheeler, G. C. and J. Wheeler. 1986. The Ants of Nevada. Los Angeles: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, vii + 138 pp.
• Wheeler, W. M. 1908h. The ants of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. (Part I.). Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 24: 399-485 (page 448, first available use of Pheidole xerophila subsp. tusconica var. gilvencens Wheeler; unavailable name.)

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

• Creighton W. S., and R. E. Gregg. 1955. New and little-known species of Pheidole (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. University of Colorado Studies. Series in Biology 3: 1-46.
• Dattilo W. et al. 2019. MEXICO ANTS: incidence and abundance along the Nearctic-Neotropical interface. Ecology https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2944
• Des Lauriers J., and D. Ikeda. 2017. The ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California, USA with an annotated list. In: Reynolds R. E. (Ed.) Desert Studies Symposium. California State University Desert Studies Consortium, 342 pp. Pages 264-277.
• Johnson R. Personnal Database. Accessed on February 5th 2014 at http://www.asu.edu/clas/sirgtools/resources.htm
• Vásquez-Bolaños M. 2011. Lista de especies de hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) para México. Dugesiana 18: 95-133
• Wheeler G. C., and J. Wheeler. 1986. The ants of Nevada. Los Angeles: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, vii + 138 pp.
• Wheeler, G.C. and J. Wheeler. 1985. A checklist of Texas ants. Prairie Naturalist 17:49-64.
• Wilson, E.O. 2003. Pheidole in the New World: A Dominant, Hyperdiverse Genus. Harvard University Press