Pheidole moseni

The Espirito Santo colony was collected in montane forest. (Wilson 2003)

Identification
See the description in the nomenclature section.

Distribution
From Wilson (2003): Known from the types, of uncertain provenance in Brazil, and from "Reserva Nova Lombardia," 4 km north of Santa Teresa, Espirito Santo, 900 m, col. W. L. Brown.

This taxon was described from Brazil.

Description
DIAGNOSIS From Wilson (2003): Similar in various ways to Pheidole binasifera, Pheidole diabolus, Pheidole gravida, Pheidole mirabilis, Pheidole mosenopsis, Pheidole nasifera, Pheidole rhinoceros and Pheidole unicornis, distinguished as follows.

Major: small; brownish yellow; frontal lobes project as rounded right angles forward and downward from head profile; eyes small,Eye Length much less than one-tenth Head Width; posterior half of head and all of pronotum smooth and shiny; rugoreticulum nowhere present on head; promesonotum drops through a steep posterior face to the metanotum; postpetiolar node from above 2X as wide as petiolar node, and spinose.

Minor: eyes very small, Eye Length much less than one-tenth Head Width; almost all of dorsal head surface, excluding occipital edge, frontal triangle, and midclypeus, carinulate; almost all of meso soma smooth.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Lectotype major: HW 0.86, HL 0.96, SL 0.20, EL 0.06, PW 0.50. Paralectotype minor: HW 0.44, HL 0.46, SL 0.38, EL 0.04, PW 0.28.

COLOR Major and minor: concolorous brownish yellow.



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

Type Material
and - as reported in Wilson (2003)

Type Locality Information
BRAZIL: no further locality. (Wilson 2003)

Etymology
Eponymous. (Wilson 2003)

Additional References
Wheeler, W. M. 1925. Neotropical ants in the collections of the Royal Museum of Stockholm. Ark. Zool. 17A(8): 1–55.

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