Pheidole yaqui

The unpublished records of Stefan Cover show that yaqui occurs in southern California from desert at lower elevation to creosote-acacia-juniper scrub in the uplands. The colonies of 50 to 100 workers nest in arid soil, sometimes with a crater of excavated earth and seed chaff. At Deep Canyon, near Palm Springs, California, Wheeler and Wheeler (1973) found yaqui in desert and in palo verde and agave-ocotillo scrub, in crater soil nests; they uncovered caches of Euphorbia micromera and Oenothera clavaeformis seeds inside the nests. (Wilson 2003)

Identification
See the description in the nomenclature section.

Distribution
Known from southern California (100–1050 m) and Baja California (northern half of the peninsula), sea level to 550 m. (Wilson 2003)

This taxon was described from the United States.

Nomenclature

 *  yaqui. Pheidole yaqui Creighton & Gregg, 1955: 43, fig. 10 (s.w.) U.S.A. See also: Wilson, 2003: 607.

Description
From Wilson (2003): DIAGNOSIS Close to and possibly a senior synonym of Pheidole bajaensis, differing as follows.

Major: occiput smooth, not rugulose; postpetiole seen from above ovoid, not literally angulate; margins of pronotal dorsum transversely carinulate.

Minor: humerus in dorsal-oblique view subangulate; occiput narrow, its corners less angulate than in bajaensis. Together, yaqui and bajaensis differ from Pheidole gilvescens and Pheidole xerophila in the major’s head shape, which is rounded (not flattened) in the dorsal profile of its posterior half, an failure of the head to taper toward the occiput; other traits exist in the major and minor as depicted.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Paratype major: HW 1.20, HL 1.30, SL 0.62, EL 0.20, PW 0.52. Paratype minor: HW 0.50, HL 0.54, SL 0.44, EL 0.16, PW 0.32.

COLOR Major: brownish yellow.

Minor: body and appendages medium yellow except for dorsal surface of head, which is a slightly contrasting shade of light yellowish brown.



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

Type Material
- as reported in Wilson (2003)

Type Locality Information
CALIFORNIA: Yaqui Well, Anza Desert State Park, col. W. S. Creighton. (Wilson 2003)

Etymology
Named after either the type locality or the Yaqui people of the Sonoran desert. (Wilson 2003)

Additional References
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. Univ. Colo. Stud. Ser. Biol. 3: 1–46.

Wheeler, G. C. and J. Wheeler. 1973. Ants of Deep Canyon. Riverside, Calif.: U. of California, xiii + 162 pp.

Text and images from this publication used by permission of the author.