Pheidole gouldi

In Costa Rica, according to Longino (1997), gouldi is an inhabitant of seasonally dry habitats. He has encountered it in the xeric scrub of Santa Rosa National Park and along roadsides. In Campeche, Mexico, I found a colony in a double-cratered nest in dense bushes of a moist thorn woodland. (Wilson 2003)

Identification
See the description in the nomenclature section.

Distribution
Recorded from Campeche and Yucatán, Mexico; Guatemala; Honduras; and the northwestern lowlands of Costa Rica. (Wilson 2003)

This taxon was described from Guatemala.

Nomenclature

 *  gouldi. Pheidole gouldi Forel, 1886b: xlii (s.w.q.m.) GUATEMALA. See also: Wilson, 2003: 295.

Description
From Wilson (2003): A member of the fallax group instantly recognizable by the following traits.

Major: reddish yellow; entire body covered by short, bristle-like, exclusively erect hairs that on each body part are approximately of equal length; all of head, mesosoma, and waist foveolate and opaque; all of first gastral tergite and posterior strips of succeeding tergites very finely shagreened and opaque, and first gastral tergite often with bluish reflections; antennal scape reaches halfway from level of eye to level of occiput; postpetiolar node from above elliptical.

Minor: occiput drawn out into a long neck, with nuchal collar; all of head, mesosoma, and waist foveolate and opaque; all of first gastral tergite and posterior strips of succeeding tergites shagreened and opaque.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Major (Palo Verde, Costa Rica): HW 1.66, HL 1.72, SL 1.32, EL 0.24, PW 0.78. Minor (Palo Verde, Costa Rica): HW 0.78, HL 1.04, SL 1.42, EL 0.22, PW 0.52.

COLOR Major: body and appendages light reddish yellow (“orange”) except for the gaster, which is medium reddish yellow; first gastral tergite has in addition bluish reflections.

Minor: body medium yellowish brown, appendages light yellowish brown.



'''Figure. Upper: major. Lower: minor. COSTA RICA: Rio Tempisque, Palo Verde, Guanacaste, col. Charles Kugler. (Compared with syntypes.) Scale bars = 1 mm.'''

Type Material
and - as reported in Wilson (2003)

Type Locality Information
Guatemala

Etymology
Eponymous, no attribution given. (Wilson 2003)

Additional References
Forel, A. 1886b. Espèces nouvelles de fourmis américaines. Ann. Soc. Entomol. Belg. 30: xxxviii–xlix.

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