Pheidole mendicula

P. mendicula is an adaptable species. At La Selva, near Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, Longino (1997) found a nest in the clay soil of a lawn surrounded by rainforest. Other sites include a second-growth forest and a rotten branch in a bamboo grove (Trinidad), and a rotten stick on the floor of terra firme rainforest (Brazil). On the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica, Longino (1997) collected a worker from an extrafloral nectary of Passifolia pittieri. Winged queens have been found in nests from May to July. (Wilson 2003)

Identification
See the description in the nomenclature section.

Distribution
Besides Wheeler’s type collection in Panama, Longino (1997) has recorded mendicula from both the Atlantic and Pacific lowlands of Costa Rica; and the species has been collected widely southward to Trinidad and Amazonian Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador. (Wilson 2003)

This taxon was described from Panama.

Nomenclature

 *  mendicula. Pheidole (Hendecapheidole) mendicula Wheeler, W.M. 1925d: 172, fig. 6 (s.w.m.) PANAMA. See also: Smith, M.R. 1955c: 303; Wilson, 2003: 637.

Description
DIAGNOSIS From Wilson (2003): A very small, reddish brown member of the tachigaliae group, which group is characterized by 11-segmented antennae, and distinguished within it as follows.

Major: occiput rugoreticulate, antennal scrobes, frontal triangle, and mid-clypeus smooth, and rest of dorsal head surface transversely carinulate; all of head and mesosoma foveolate and punctate; strong transverse ridge just breaks the surface of the pronotal profile in side view as a right-angle; posterior half of dorsal head profile in side view weakly concave; postpetiole from above trapezoidal.

Minor: all of head and mesosoma foveolate and opaque; carinulae absent mesad to eye; propodeal spines backward projecting.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Syntype major: HW 0.60, HL 0.66, SL 0.32, EL 0.08, PW 0.38. Syntype minor: HW 0.34, HL 0.34, SL 0.26, EL 0.06, PW 0.24.

COLOR Major and minor: body concolorous medium reddish brown, appendages a contrasting yellowish brown.



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

Type Material
- as reported in Wilson (2003)

Type Locality Information
From Wilson (2003): PANAMA: Barro Coorado Island, col. William M. Wheeler. (Wilson 2003)

Etymology
L mendicula, little and beggarly, or poor, presumably alluding to the small size and reduction of antennal segmentation. (Wilson 2003)

Additional References
Wheeler, W. M. 1925. A new guest-ant and other new Formicidae from Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Biol. Bull. (Woods Hole). 49: 150–181.

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