Pheidole virago

Extremely rare. Wheeler’s type series were from nests in open sandy soil, marked by 1-cm-wide entrances surrounded by craters of sandy soil 8 to 12 cm across. Ingham (1959, 1963; unpublished theses quoted by Allred 1982), reported virago at 900 m in southern Utah, in desert and semidesert, variously with creosote bush, bur sage, rabbitbrush, cholla, marigold, and Russian thistle, forming crater nests in open soil. However, the Utah records are doubtful and need field confirmation. (Wilson 2003)

Identification
See the description in the nomenclature section.

Distribution
Texas to Arizona. (Wilson 2003)

This taxon was described from the United States.

Nomenclature

 *  virago. Pheidole virago Wheeler, W.M. 1915b: 401 (s.w.) U.S.A. See also: Wilson, 2003: 604.

Description
From Wilson (2003): DIAGNOSIS A very large, reddish brown (major) to reddish yellow (minor) member of the pilifera group.

Major: anterior third of head completely carinulate, with some carinulae that originate on the frontal lobes almost reaching the occiput; pronotum and mesonotal convexity completely covered by transverse carinulae; in dorsal-oblique view, promesonotal profile evenly trilobous; a small metanotal convexity present; the propodeal spines large and perpendicular to the basal propodeal face; postpetiole seen from above very broad and conulate.

Minor: dorsal surface of head and sides of mesosoma longitudinally carinulate; pronotal dorsum covered by a mix of longitudinal carinulae and rugulae; propodeal spines perpendicular to basal propodeal face; dorsal margin of petiolar node strongly convex; postpetiolar node depressed.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Lectotype major: HW 2.02, HL 2.20, SL 0.84, EL 0.20, PW 0.90. Paralectotype minor: HW 0.60, HL 0.66, SL 0.64, EL 0.12, PW 0.40.

COLOR Major: concolorous light reddish brown.

Minor: reddish yellow.



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

Type Material
- as reported in Wilson (2003)

Type Locality Information
From Wilson (2003): ARIZONA: Santa Cruz River, Tucson, col. W. M. Wheeler.

Etymology
L virago, female warrior. (Wilson 2003)

Additional References
Allred, D. M. 1982. Ants of Utah. Great Basin Nat. 42: 415–511.

Ingham, C. D. 1959. Ants of the Virgin River Basin, southwestern Utah. Thesis. U. of Utah. 140 pp.

Ingham, C. D. 1963. An ecological and taxonomic study of the ants of the Great Basin and Mojave Desert regions of southwestern Utah. Dissertation. U. of Utah. 212 pp.

Wheeler, W. M. 1915. Some additions to the North American antfauna. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 34: 389–421.

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