Key to Pheidole transversostriata group

Key to Pheidole transversostriata group

This worker key is based on:

This group of small, rather rare ants, the soldiers of which have transversely carinulate heads, superficially resemble those of the tachigaliae group but have 12-segmented rather than 11-segmented antennae. They furthermore differ significantly in head and body shape. Members of the transversostriata group occur variously from Central America to Ecuador and Trinidad. They appear to be derivatives of one or more lines within the large, phenetically defined flavens group. One species, Pheidole bicornis, is an obligate symbiont of Piper'' myrmecophytes.

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 * Pheidole
 * "New World Pheidole" Wilson 2003

1

 * Major: in side view, frontal lobes drawn out from the surface of the head as hornlike, acute-angular projections; mesonotal dorsum rugoreticulate (Central America, inhabits Piper myrmecophytes) . . . . . Pheidole bicornis


 * Major: in side view, frontal lobes rounded, not drawn out as hornlike projections; mesonotal dorsum carinulate, or foveolate, or smooth, but not rugoreticulate . . . . . 2

2
return to couplet #1
 * Major: occiput rugoreticulate (Costa Rica, Trinidad) . . . . . Pheidole transversostriata


 * Major: occiput transversely carinulate, not rugoreticulate . . . . . 3

3
return to couplet #2
 * Major: in side view, profile of head not “dented” by a strong concavity just anterior to the occiput, instead forming a smooth, continuous convexity; space between eye and frontal lobe rugoreticulate (South America, West Indies) . . . . . Pheidole transversostriata


 * Major: in side view, profile of head "dented" by a strong convexity just anterior to the occiput; space between eye and frontal lobes with carinulae only . . . . . 4

4
return to couplet #3
 * Major: on posterior half of dorsum of head, transverse carinulae run straight across, with the anteriormost one ending at the margins of the head halfway between the eye and the level of the occiput; pronotum entirely smooth and shiny (Amazonian Brazil and Peru) . . . . . Pheidole scolioceps


 * Major: on posterior half of dorsum of head, transverse carinulae curve anteriorly from midline to margins of head, with the anteriormost one almost touching the eyes; pronotum foveolate and opaque, and also bearing transverse carinulae on its anterior dorsum (montane Ecuador) . . . . . Pheidole gnomus