Dorymyrmex bossutus

Common in open areas of Florida's sandhills habitats.

Identification
Trager (1988) - Worker small and shiny, particularly gaster which lacks or has at most very sparse pubescence; declivous face of mesonotum steep, often nearly vertical, giving a hunchbacked or strongly saddle-backed appearance.

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

Biology
Trager (1988) - C. bossuta is widely distributed in the sandhills and fossil dunes of Florida and is often associated with the turkey oak, Quercus laevis Walter. The nest entrance is circular, surrounded by a 5-10 mm wide crater of excavated soil, and located in small, vegetation-free patches so common in the sparse sandhill vegetation. In nest excavations, several dozen workers and numerous larvae and pupae were unearthed between 15 and 25 cm deep, few individuals any deeper. This species tolerates cutting over of trees and foot traffic in its habitat, but does not withstand tilling. Workers forage singly, usually in the shade, and may bear a superficial resemblance to workers of Pheidole dentata or Pheidole morrisii when seen in the field.

Nomenclature

 *  bossutus. Conomyrma bossuta Trager, 1988: 15, figs. 1, 8 (w.q.) U.S.A. Combination in Dorymyrmex: Shattuck, 1992c: 85. See also: Johnson, C. 1989b: 192.

Worker
HL 0.77-0.88 (0.80), HW 0.63-0.75 (0.69), SL 0.75-0.88 (0.80), EL 0.18-0.23 (0.21), FL 0.63-0.80 (0.73), WL 1.00-1.25 (1.10), HTL 1.73-2.13 (1.90), CI 82.7-88.2 (86.2), SI 110.7-124.3 (115.9), OI 23.7-27.5 (26.2), FI 86.3-94.0 (91.2), TI 127.1-144.9 (137.5). N =25.

General form and characters as in figures, and in key.

Head broadest across eyes, with convex sides and straight occipital border; in full face view, sides often weakly convergent toward occiput; in specimens from south-central Florida, mesonotum may bear a small hump at meeting of dorsal and declivous faces, declivity usually steep, concave; steepness and concavity of mesonotal declivity less pronounced in holotype, and in general in specimens from northern and coastal parts of the species' range; propodeal cone proportionately higher in south-central Florida specimens.

Mandibles striate near base, striae becoming obsolete distally and replaced by smooth, elongate punctures; tessellation of head and thorax conspicuous, combining with very fine pubescence to offset the strong sheen of the intersculptural spaces; gastric sculpture shallow and inconspicuous and pubescence absent or composed of short, appressed setae separated by at least 2X their average length; gaster thus appearing very shiny.

Color ranging from head dark brown, thorax yellowish or reddish brown and gaster dark brown to nearly black (most common), to bicolored with thorax light reddish brown, head slightly darker, and gaster dark brown (occasional in northern part of range); to nearly uniform yellowish brown with infuscate gastric apex (least common, known only from Highlands Co., and one isolated population in Alachua Co., Florida).

Queen
HL 1.03-1.05, HW 1.03-1.04, SL 0.90-0.93, EL 0.35-0.36, TW 0.91-0.99, WL 2.08-2.18, HTL 3.11-3.25, CI 99.7-101.0, SI 87.4-90.3, or 33.3-35.0, TWI 88.3-95.2, TI 201.9-211. 7. N = 3.

Smaller and shinier, especially on gaster, than any other Dorymyrmex queen reported here except Dorymyrmex reginicula; head about as long as broad; sides angulo-convex, convergent toward clypeus; eyes strongly convex, their outer margins reaching or falling just short of sides of head; occipital border convex, less clearly set off from sides of head by occipital lobes than in other species; thorax slender, narrower than head. Sculpture as in worker, but shininess obscured by longer, denser pubescence; head and thorax brownish yellow; gaster shiny and rich brown, in some specimens with a yellowish patch near base.

Etymology
The name bossuta is a latinization (and presumably vulgar Latin form) of the French adjective bossu, meaning humpbacked.