Pogonomyrmex colei

A workerless inquiline within the nests of.

Distribution
Southern Nevada and central Arizona.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Nearctic Region: United States.

Genetics
The genome of P. colei was sequenced for a study examining how this and other parasitic ants with no worker caste may have altered their genome to arrive at a workerless state. In comparison to ants with a full complement of castes, there appeared to be no loss of genes in the parasitic ants. This suggests regulatory differences and not sequence differences predominate in gains and losses of castes (phenotypes). (Smith et al. 2015)

Nomenclature

 *  colei. Pogonomyrmex (Pogonomyrmex) colei Snelling, R.R. 1982a: 99, figs. 1-11 (q.m.) U.S.A. See also: Rissing, 1983: 321; Johnson, R.A., Parker & Rissing, 1996: 69.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Anderson K. E., L. Zeltzer, R. P. Overson, and W. H. Clark. 2010. Identification of cryptic hosts for two inquiline parasites of the seed-harvester ant Pogonomyrmex and new localities for P. anergismus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). The Southwestern Naturalist 55: 532-538.
 * Johnson R. A., J. D. Parker, and S. W. Rissing. 1996. Rediscovery of the workerless inquiline ant Pogonomyrmex colei and additional notes on natural history. Insectes Sociaux 43: 69-76.
 * Johnson R. Personnal Database. Accessed on February 5th 2014 at http://www.asu.edu/clas/sirgtools/resources.htm
 * Snelling, R.R. 1981. The taxonomy and distribution of some North American Pogonomyrmex and descriptions of two new species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Science 80(3):97-112.
 * Wheeler G. C., and J. Wheeler. 1986. The ants of Nevada. Los Angeles: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, vii + 138 pp.