Pheidole bruesi

At La Sagesse Bay, Stefan Cover and I found P. bruesi abundant in dry, semi-deciduous scrub woodland, nesting in soil covered by thin leaf litter. At Fort Jeudy, a nest was found in dry deciduous forest, in a small rotting stump with galleries extending downward into the soil. In a nutmeg grove at Concord Falls, we found nests common in the soil. A nest excavated at Sagesse Bay contained a single queen. Majors and minors were readily attracted to baits, following odor trails laid by individually foraging scout workers. A male was collected in a nest on Grenada by C. T. Brues in September. (Wilson 2003)

Identification
See the description in the nomenclature section.

Distribution
Known only from Grenada and, probably, Amazonian Brazil. (Wilson 2003)

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Neotropical Region: Grenada, Lesser Antilles.

Nomenclature

 *  bruesi. Pheidole triconstricta var. bruesi Wheeler, W.M. 1911b: 169 (s.w.) GRENADA I. Raised to species: Wilson, 2003: 174.

Description
From Wilson (2003): A small, yellow, nearly hairless member of the diligens group, similar to Pheidole diligens, Pheidole inversa, Pheidole laidlowi, Pheidole radoszkowskii and Pheidole triconstricta, and differing by the following combination of traits.

Major: cephalic sculpturing consisting exclusively of longitudinal carinulae and foveolae, which are usually confined to the dorsal surface anterior to the posterior margin of the eyes; promesonotal profile 3-lobed; petiolar node thick; lateral margins of postpetiolar node subangular; gaster entirely smooth and shiny.

Minor: promesonotal profile 3-lobed. The Grenada series collected by Stefan Cover and me are variable, especially in the amount of cephalic sculpturing. A series nearly identical to the Grenadan population was collected by William L. Brown between Manaus and Itacoatiara, Amazonas, Brazil; it differs from the Grenada bruesi types only in the convex occiput (frontal view) and convex petiolar dorsal border (rear view) of the minor. Thus the status of bruesi as a Grenadan or even West Indian endemic is in doubt.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Lectotype major: HW 0.98, HL 1.00, SL 0.72, EL 0.20, PW 0.46. Paralectotype minor: HW 0.52, HL 0.60, SL 0.66, EL 0.12, PW 0.34.

COLOR Major and minor: yellow.



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

Type Material
From Wilson (2003): GRENADA, WEST INDIES: Grand Etang, col. Charles T. Brues. - as reported in Wilson (2003)

Etymology
From Wilson (2003): Named after the collector, the entomologist Charles T. Brues.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Franco W., N. Ladino, J. H. C. Delabie, A. Dejean, J. Orivel, M. Fichaux, S. Groc, M. Leponce, and R. M. Feitosa. 2019. First checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of French Guiana. Zootaxa 4674(5): 509-543.
 * Groc S., J. H. C. Delabie, F. Fernandez, F. Petitclerc, B. Corbara, M. Leponce, R. Cereghino, and A. Dejean. 2017. Litter-dwelling ants as bioindicators to gauge the sustainability of small arboreal monocultures embedded in the Amazonian rainforest. Ecological Indicators 82: 43-49.
 * Kempf, W.W. 1972. Catalago abreviado das formigas da regiao Neotropical (Hym. Formicidae) Studia Entomologica 15(1-4).
 * Wilson, E.O. 2003. Pheidole in the New World: A Dominant, Hyperdiverse Genus. Harvard University Press