Pheidole mendicula

P. mendicula is an adaptable species. At La Selva, near Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, Longino (1997) found a nest in the clay soil of a lawn surrounded by rainforest. Other sites include a second-growth forest and a rotten branch in a bamboo grove (Trinidad), and a rotten stick on the floor of terra firme rainforest (Brazil). On the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica, Longino (1997) collected a worker from an extrafloral nectary of Passifolia pittieri. Winged queens have been found in nests from May to July. (Wilson 2003)

Identification
See the description in the nomenclature section.

Distribution
Besides Wheeler’s type collection in Panama, Longino (1997) has recorded mendicula from both the Atlantic and Pacific lowlands of Costa Rica; and the species has been collected widely southward to Trinidad and Amazonian Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador. (Wilson 2003)

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Neotropical Region: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago.

Nomenclature

 *  mendicula. Pheidole (Hendecapheidole) mendicula Wheeler, W.M. 1925d: 172, fig. 6 (s.w.m.) PANAMA. See also: Smith, M.R. 1955c: 303; Wilson, 2003: 637.

Description
DIAGNOSIS From Wilson (2003): A very small, reddish brown member of the tachigaliae group, which group is characterized by 11-segmented antennae, and distinguished within it as follows.

Major: occiput rugoreticulate, antennal scrobes, frontal triangle, and mid-clypeus smooth, and rest of dorsal head surface transversely carinulate; all of head and mesosoma foveolate and punctate; strong transverse ridge just breaks the surface of the pronotal profile in side view as a right-angle; posterior half of dorsal head profile in side view weakly concave; postpetiole from above trapezoidal.

Minor: all of head and mesosoma foveolate and opaque; carinulae absent mesad to eye; propodeal spines backward projecting.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Syntype major: HW 0.60, HL 0.66, SL 0.32, EL 0.08, PW 0.38. Syntype minor: HW 0.34, HL 0.34, SL 0.26, EL 0.06, PW 0.24.

COLOR Major and minor: body concolorous medium reddish brown, appendages a contrasting yellowish brown.



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

Type Material
From Wilson (2003): PANAMA: Barro Coorado Island, col. William M. Wheeler. - as reported in Wilson (2003)

Etymology
L mendicula, little and beggarly, or poor, presumably alluding to the small size and reduction of antennal segmentation.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Achury R., P. Chacon de Ulloa, and A. M. Arcila. 2008. Ant composition and competitive interactions with Wasmannia auropunctata in Tropical Dry Forest fragments. Revista Colombiana de Entomología 34 (2): 209-216.
 * Alonso L., M. Kaspari, and A. Alonso. 2001. Assessment of the Ants of the Lower Urubamba Region, Peru. Pp 87-93. In: Alsonso A, Dallmeier F, Campbell P, editors. Urubamba: The biodiversity of a Peruvian rainforest. SI/MAB Biodiversity Program-Smithsonian Institution. 204 p.
 * Bezdeckova K., P. Bedecka, and I. Machar. 2015. A checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Peru. Zootaxa 4020 (1): 101–133.
 * Donoso D. A. 2014. Assembly mechanisms shaping tropical litter ant communities. Ecography 37 doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00253.x
 * Fernández, F. and S. Sendoya. 2004. Lista de las hormigas neotropicales. Biota Colombiana Volume 5, Number 1.
 * Franco W., N. Ladino, J. H. C. Delabie, A. Dejean, J. Orivel, M. Fichaux, S. Groc, M. Leponce, and R. M. Feitosa. 2019. First checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of French Guiana. Zootaxa 4674(5): 509-543.
 * Galkowski C. 2016. New data on the ants from the Guadeloupe (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Bull. Soc. Linn. Bordeaux 151, 44(1): 25-36.
 * Longino J. T., J. Coddington, and R. K. Colwell. 2002. The ant fauna of a tropical rain forest: estimating species richness three different ways. Ecology 83: 689-702.
 * Smith M. R. 1955. Ants of the genus Pheidole, subgenus Hendecapheidole (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 57: 301-305.
 * Wheeler W. M. 1925. A new guest-ant and other new Formicidae from Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Biological Bulletin (Woods Hole) 49: 150-181.