Pheidole sciara

A colony found in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, by Stefan Cover (unpublished field notes) was in open desert with scattered mesquite, yucca, and Ephedra, occupying a soil nest with an entrance in a grass clump. A second colony was discovered by Cover nesting in open soil near Pecos, Texas, in saline desert among growth of Limonium and Salicornia. Nests reported by Moody and Francke (1982) in western Texas were at 600 to 1700 m and variously under stones and in open soil. (Wilson 2003)

Identification
See the description in the nomenclature section.

Distribution
West-central Texas to southwestern New Mexico. (Wilson 2003)

This taxon was described from the United States.

Nomenclature

 *  sciara. Pheidole sciara Cole, 1955a: 47 (s.w.) U.S.A. See also: Wilson, 2003: 346.

Description
From Wilson (2003): A member of the fallax group, somewhat similar to Pheidole optiva of Mexico, distinguished as follows.

Major: in dorsal-oblique view, promesonotal dorsal profile with 3 roughly equal lobes (2 pronotal, 1 mesonotal); rugoreticulum on each side of head extends from eye to antennal fossa; central third of head dorsum, from frontal lobes to occiput, carinulate, and occipital lobes smooth; pronotal dorsum entirely carinulate; propodeal spines one third as long as and nearly vertical to basal propodeal face; postpetiole elliptical, with angulate lateral borders.

Minor: entire head, mesosoma, and waist foveolate and opaque; eyes large, Eye Length one-third Head Width.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Paratype major: HW 1.48, HL 1.52, SL 0.86, EL 0.26, PW 0.80. Paratype minor: HW 0.62, HL 0.76, SL 0.86, EL 0.20, PW 0.40.

COLOR Major: body light reddish brown except for gaster, which is plain medium to dark brown.

Minor: body plain medium brown, appendages light to medium brown.



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

Type Material
- as reported in Wilson (2003)

Type Locality Information
NEW MEXICO: Lordsburg, col. Arthur C. Cole. (Wilson 2003)

Etymology
Gr sciara, shaded, possibly alluding to color of the types. (Wilson 2003)

Additional References

 * [[Media:Cole 1955a.pdf|Cole, A. C., Jr. 1955a. Studies of New Mexico ants. XIV. A description of a new species of Pheidole Westwood (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). J. Tenn. Acad. Sci. 30: 47-49 PDF]]

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.

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