Pheidole albipes

At the type locality, in degraded lowland forest, I found two colonies nesting in small rotting tree branches in the ground leaf litter, and another colony under the bark of a large rotten log. (Wilson 2003)

Identification
See the description in the nomenclature section.

Distribution
Southern Mexico: known from several lowland forested localities in Veracruz, and from forest 7 km south of Valle Nacional, Oaxaca, at 450 m. (Wilson 2003)

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

Worker
Minor

Nomenclature

 *  albipes. Pheidole albipes Wilson, 2003: 367, figs. (s.w.) MEXICO.

Description
A small, strikingly colored species of the flavens group, similar in various traits to Pheidole alticola, Pheidole chalca, Pheidole ebenina, Pheidole euryscopa, Pheidole lustrata, Pheidole monteverdensis, Pheidole palenquensisand ''Pheidole servilia, differing as follows. Major: reddish brown with strongly contrasting pale yellow tibiae and tarsi, and head bicolorous; region between eye and occipital border irregularly rugoreticulate, occipital margins and center of clypeus smooth and shiny, and rest of dorsal surface of head carinulate; almost all of mesosoma smooth and shiny; humerus subangulate in dorsal-oblique view; postpetiole diamond-shaped from above.

Minor: almost all of head and body smooth and shiny; occiput broad and strongly concave; humerus subdenticulate in dorsal-oblique view.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Holotype major: HW 0.60, HL 0.64, SL 0.38, EL 0.10, PW 0.34. Paratype minor: HW 0.38, HL 0.40, SL 0.36, EL 0.06, PW 0.24.

COLOR Major: body, coxae, and femora medium reddish brown; head anterior to eyes yellow; antennae, tibiae, and tarsi pale yellow.

Minor: head and body medium brown; coxae and femora light brown; antennae, tibiae, and tarsi very pale yellow, almost white.



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

Type Material
MEXICO: Pueblo Nuevo, near Tetzonapa, Veracruz, col. E. O. Wilson.

Etymology
L albipes, white-footed.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Ahuatzin D. A., E. J. Corro, A. Aguirre Jaimes, J. E. Valenzuela Gonzalez, R. Machado Feitosa, M. Cezar Ribeiro, J. Carlos Lopez Acosta, R. Coates, W. Dattilo. 2019. Forest cover drives leaf litter ant diversity in primary rainforest remnants within human-modified tropical landscapes. Biodiversity and Conservation 28(5): 1091-1107.
 * Dattilo W. et al. 2019. MEXICO ANTS: incidence and abundance along the Nearctic-Neotropical interface. Ecology https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2944
 * Longino J. T. L., and M. G. Branstetter. 2018. The truncated bell: an enigmatic but pervasive elevational diversity pattern in Middle American ants. Ecography 41: 1-12.
 * Longino J. et al. ADMAC project. Accessed on March 24th 2017 at https://sites.google.com/site/admacsite/
 * Vásquez-Bolaños M. 2011. Lista de especies de hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) para México. Dugesiana 18: 95-133
 * Wilson, E.O. 2003. Pheidole in the New World: A Dominant, Hyperdiverse Genus. Harvard University Press