Manica bradleyi

Manica bradleyi is a high-elevation specialist found in mountains of California and nearby Nevada, with a single record from the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. It commonly makes round crater nests in soil but can occasionally be found nesting under stones in open areas.

Identification
This species may be readily distinguished from all other species of Manica by its black or dark brown head and gaster with a light brown to reddish yellow thorax and its glabrous and much more slender petiole and postpetiole. The propodeum of bradleyi is more angular than invidia.

Identification Keys including this Taxon
Key to Manica of North America

Distribution
This species occurs in Oregon, the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, western Nevada and the Transverse Ranges in southern California.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Nearctic Region: United States.

Habitat
Montane, coniferous forest. Ranging from 4,000 feet to 10,000 feet in elevation.

Biology
This ant is the host of * in California.

Manica bradleyi, a montane forest species, may use the abundant mycorrhizal roots associated with their nests for food and the larvae may do the actual feeding, returning some of the digested food to the workers.

Nomenclature

 *  bradleyi. Myrmica bradleyi Wheeler, W.M. 1909e: 77 (w.) U.S.A. Cole, 1957c: 210 (q.m.); Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1960b: 6 (l.). Combination in Myrmica (Oreomyrma): Wheeler, W.M. 1914d: 120; in M. (Neomyrma): Emery, 1915d: 69 (footnote); in M. (Manica): Emery, 1921f: 43; in Manica: Weber, 1947: 440; Creighton, 1950a: 108. Senior synonym of calderoni: Wheeler, W.M. 1915a: 50.
 * calderoni. Aphaenogaster (Neomyrma) calderoni Forel, 1914a: 275 (w.) U.S.A. Combination in Myrmica (Neomyrma): Emery, 1915d: 69 (footnote). Junior synonym of bradleyi: Wheeler, W.M. 1915a: 50.

Description
Worker. - Length 4-7mm.

Allied to Manica rubida Latreille and Manica invidia Bolton. Head rectangular, as broad as long, with subparallel sides and straight posterior border. Mandibles moderately convex, pointed, with minutely denticulate blades. Clypeus somewhat convex in the middle, with nearly straight anterior border. Frontal area distinct. Antennal scapes simple, curved and feebly compressed at the base; funicular joints all longer than proad; club 5-jointed. Thorax rather slender, with pronounced mesoepinotal constriction; pro- and mesonotum evenly rounded i profile; propodeum unarmed, base slightly convex, passing through a distinct, but obtuse angle into the somewhat shorter, straight and sloping declivity. Petiole slender, fully three times as long as broad, in profile with a well-developed, cylindrical peduncle, armed with a small, acute, antero-ventral tooth, and surmounted by a low rounded node just behind the middle. Anterior slope of node concave, posterior more convex. Post-petiole fully one and one-half times as long as broad, subcampanulate; in profile with its upper surface rising in a gentle curve towards the posterior edge of the segment and then abruptly descending. Gaster elliptical, rather large.

Shining; head and thorax subopaque, petiole, postpetiole, gaster and legs glabrous. Mandibles densely striato-punctate. Clypeus, frontal area and head finely, longitudinally rugose, the rugae somewhat curved and diverging on the front but straight on the posterior portion of the head. Cheeks and posterior corners also coarsely punctate. Thorax finely rugose like the head, the rugae being transverse on the pronotum and base of epinotum, longitudinal on the pleurae and mesonotum. On the epinotal declivity they are faint or obsolete, and the surface is densely and finely punctate.

Hairs golden yellow, long, abundant and pointed, suberect or reclinate, covering the body and appendages throughout.

Mandibles, thorax, petiole and postpetiole brownish-yellow; head, mandibular denticles, gaster, legs and antennal scapes black; trochanters, bases of femora, knees, tips of tibiae, tarsi and antennal funiculi, except their clubs, yellowish-brown. In some specimens the mandibles are more or less infuscated, with paler masticatory borders; in certain individulas, also, the coxae are more or less yellowish like the thorax. Venter and sting brown or yellowish.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Des Lauriers J., and D. Ikeda. 2017. The ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California, USA with an annotated list. In: Reynolds R. E. (Ed.) Desert Studies Symposium. California State University Desert Studies Consortium, 342 pp. Pages 264-277.
 * Longino, J.T. 2010. Personal Communication. Longino Collection Database
 * Mallis A. 1941. A list of the ants of California with notes on their habits and distribution. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 40: 61-100.
 * Wheeler G. C., and J. Wheeler. 1986. The ants of Nevada. Los Angeles: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, vii + 138 pp.
 * Wheeler W. M. 1909. A decade of North American Formicidae. Journal of the New York Entomological Society 17: 77-90.
 * Wheeler W. M. 1915. Neomyrma versus Oreomyrma. A correction. Psyche (Camb.) 22: 50
 * Wheeler W. M. 1917. The mountain ants of western North America. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 52: 457-569.
 * Wheeler, G.C. and J. Wheeler. 1970. The natural history of Manica (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Kansas Entomological Society 43(2):129-162
 * Wheeler, G.C. and J. Wheeler. 1978. Mountain ants of Nevada. Great Basin Naturalist 35(4):379-396