Pheidole belonorte

This species inhabits mature lowland wet forest and lower cloud forest from Mexico to Honduras. Minor and major workers recruit to ground baits and are collected in Winkler samples of sifted leaf litter and rotten wood from the forest floor.

Identification
Minor: face foveolate, overlain with reticulate rugulae; posterior margin of head weakly emarginate in face view; promesonotal groove absent; pronotal dorsum with faint foveolation overlain with weak rugulae; lateral pronotum smooth and shiny; katepisternum foveolate; propodeal spines short, upturned, about one fourth length of posterior face of propodeum; gaster smooth and shining; erect setae on mesosomal dorsum and gaster; tibiae without erect setae; color yellow brown.

Major: head elongate, subrectangular; inner hypostomal teeth stout, closely spaced; scape base terete; face with very shallow scrobal impressions, not delimited; anterior half of face with faint foveolation, overlain with subparallel, longitudinal carinae between eye and antennal fossa and between frontal carinae, posterior face and vertex lobes smooth and shiny; propodeal spines short, upturned, about one fifth length of posterior face of propodeum; gastral dorsum smooth and shining; sides of head with abundant short erect setae; abundant short erect setae on mesosomal dorsum and gaster; tibiae with 0-3 suberect setae.

Measurements, minor worker: HW 0.43, HL 0.48, SL 0.36, EL 0.07, WL 0.52, PSL 0.05, PTW 0.08, PPW 0.13, CI 89, SI 85, PSLI 12, PPI 157 (n=5).

Measurements, major worker: HW 0.79, HL 0.97, SL 0.40, EL 0.11, WL 0.76, PSL 0.06, PTW 0.15, PPW 0.30, CI 81, SI 51, PSLI 8, PPI 196 (n=5).

Pheidole belonorte is a northern version of Pheidole beloceps. DNA barcoding puts Costa Rican (La Selva) P. beloceps and Nicaraguan P. belonorte in different clusters. Pheidole belonorte has the major worker with larger, more rectangular head, with vertex lobes smooth and shiny. This species occurs elsewhere in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Chiapas, Mexico, but so far appears rare in Guatemala, with only one tentative record of a minor worker. The minors are indistinguishable from Costa Rican P. beloceps. Among the mounted material, the only site where both species are known to occur is Cerro Musún in southern Nicaragua. During quantitative sampling in 2011, P. beloceps was in the miniWinkler transects at 700-800m elevation; P. belonorte was in higher elevation maxiWinklers, 1000-1400m. Previously, all specimens were identified as a more broadly defined P. beloceps. On AntWeb, I reidentified all material north of Musún as P. belonorte, including material in ethanol that I did not re-examine. For Musún, I identified all material below 800m as P. beloceps; all material above as P. belonorte. Ethanol material should be re-examined, although minors cannot be separated at this point.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Neotropical Region: Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua.

Nomenclature

 *  belonorte. Pheidole belonorte Longino, 2019: 25, fig. 8 (w.) HONDURAS.

Etymology
A northern version of Pheidole beloceps.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Longino J. T. 2019. Pheidole (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Middle American wet forest. Zootaxa 4599: 1-126