Pheidole megacephala

The colonies, which are continuous, with no evident pheromone-based boundaries, and large numbers of fertile queens, are able to reach enormous size. In some areas, especially islands such as Madeira, Culebrita, and the Dry Tortugas, they form a virtually continuous supercolony that excludes most other ant species. They do best in relatively moist, disturbed habitats, thus thrive around human habitations and in cultivated land. Nest sites are highly variable, from within and beneath rotting logs and underneath rocks and sidewalk flagstones to the bark and trunk-based detritus of standing trees. Columns of foragers travel substantial distances from one nest site to another and to food sources. P. megacephala are aggressive toward other species, and war with populations of such locally dominant species as the Indo-Australian weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina and the cosmopolitan Argentine ant Linepithema humile (= Iridomyrmex humilis). General accounts of this important species are given by Wilson (1971), Holldobler and Wilson (1990), and D. F. Williams et al. (1994). A bibliography of the ant for North America is provided by D. R. Smith (1979). The devastating effect on the native Hawaiian insect fauna was described by the pioneering entomologist R. C. L. Perkins (1913). (Wilson 2003)

Identification
See the description in the nomenclature section.

Distribution
New World - Widespread although spottily distributed, and sometimes locally very abundant, from southern Florida, Bermuda, and the Bahamas south through the West Indies, southern Mexico, and Central America, to as far south in South America as Santa Catarina, Brazil. (Wilson 2003)

This ant is found in the United States, Ecuador, Italy, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Description
From Wilson (2003): Major and minor: in side view, entire postpetiole oval in shape, with all ofthe ventral margin bulging in a conspicuous convexity, and the node oval, low, and weakly developed; mesonotal convexity absent, the promesonotal profile forming a nearly smooth semicircle; color brownish yellow.

Major: outline of head plus mandibles in full-face view forms a near-perfect heart shape; rugoreticulum present between eye and antennal fossa.

Minor: occiput broad, lacking an occipital collar.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Major (Grand Bahama Island): HW 1.32, HL 1.32, SL 0.64, EL 0.18, PW 0.60. Minor (Grand Bahama Island): HW 0.54, HL 0.62, SL 0.66, EL 0.12, PW 0.34.

COLOR Major and minor: brownish yellow.



'''Figure. Upper: major. Lower: minor. BAHAMAS: Grand Bahama Island. Scale bars = 1 mm.'''

Type Material
"Unknown" - as reported in Wilson (2003)

Type Locality Information
None cited and no types can be found.

Etymology
Gr L megacephala, large-headed, referring to the major. (Wilson 2003)