Pheidole porcula

Near San Angelo, Texas, Stefan Cover (unpublished notes) found a nest in a grassy flat, in clayey soil beneath a rock. Moody and Francke (1982) found numerous colonies in western Texas at 100–1700 m, nesting variously under stones, logs, cow dung, and under wood and fragments of metal, as well as in open soil. (Wilson 2003)

Identification
See the description in the nomenclature section.

Distribution
Chisos Mts. of the Big Bend of southwestern Texas to the vicinity of Abilene and San Angelo, central Texas; probably also occurs in upland Chihuahua. (Wilson 2003)

This taxon was described from the United States.

Nomenclature

 *  porcula. Pheidole crassicornis subsp. porcula Wheeler, W.M. 1908e: 466, pl. 27, fig. 35 (s.w.) U.S.A. Taber & Cokendolpher, 1988: 95 (k.). Raised to species: Creighton, 1950a: 187. See also: Wilson, 2003: 159.

Description
From Wilson (2003): A member of the crassicornis group close to Pheidole crassicornis, Pheidole diversipilosa, Pheidole tetra and Pheidole vallicola, differing from these species in the following combination of traits.

Major: yellow; rugoreticulum on head stretches from frontal carinae obliquely upward posterior to level of eye but does not reach the eye; pilosity dense, in full-face view fringing the head and on the first gastral tergite forming a very short, uniform felt; humerus subangulate; postpetiole from above oval, not angulate; scape at widest part of basal portion is 2x widest part of distal portion; pronotum smooth and shiny except for anterior fringe, which is carinulate.

Minor: posterior half of head completely smooth and shiny, pronotum sparsely foveolate, feebly shiny; propodeal spines reduced to denticles.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Lectotype major: HW 1.58, HL 1.60, SL 0.92, EL 0.20, PW 0.78. Paralectotype minor: HW 0.60, HL 0.74, SL 0.84, EL 0.12, PW 0.40.

COLOR Major: concolorous yellow.

Minor: concolorous light reddish brown.



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

Type Material
and - as reported in Wilson (2003)

Type Locality Information
From Wilson (2003): TEXAS: Chisos Mts., Big Bend of southwestern Texas, col. O. W. Williams.

Etymology
L porcula, little pig-like. (Wilson 2003)

Additional References
Moody, J. V., Francke, O. F. 1982. The ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of western Texas, Part 1: Subfamily Myrmicinae. Grad. Stud. Tex. Tech Univ. 27: 1–80.

Wheeler, W. M. 1908. The ants of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. (Part I.). Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 24: 399–485.

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