Pheidole koshewnikovi

Distribution
Khalili-Moghadam et al. (2019) report the first record of P. koshewnikovi from Iran. According to the recent revision of the Pheidole pallidula species-group (SEIFERT 2016), however, all previous Iranian records of Pheidole pallidula probably relate to P. koshewnikovi, which is the species with the easternmost distribution of this group.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Palaearctic Region: Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Greece, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Russian Federation, Turkey, Uzbekistan.

Nomenclature

 *  koshewnikovi. Pheidole pallidula subsp. koshewnikovi Ruzsky, 1905b: 648 (s.w.) KAZAKHSTAN.
 * Subspecies of pallidula: Baroni Urbani, 1968b: 448; Tarbinsky, 1976: 70; Bolton, 1995b: 324.
 * Status as species: Seifert, 2016b: 13.
 * Senior synonym of arenarum, orientalis: Seifert, 2016b: 13.
 * arenarum. Pheidole pallidula var. arenarum Ruzsky, 1905b: 647 (s.w.m.) TURKMENISTAN, UZBEKISTAN.
 * Karavaiev, 1926b: 106 (q.).
 * Subspecies of pallidula: Emery, 1915j: 226; Emery, 1916b: 149; Emery, 1921f: 86; Ruzsky, 1923: 4; Emery, 1924a: 8; Karavaiev, 1926b: 106; Karavaiev, 1927a: 288; Menozzi, 1933b: 57; Finzi, 1936: 162; Menozzi, 1936d: 279; Finzi, 1939c: 155; Finzi, 1940: 159; Bernard, 1948: 141; Bernard, 1950b: 287; Bernard, 1953a: 147; Pisarski, 1967: 385; Baroni Urbani, 1968b: 448; Pisarski, 1970: 307.
 * Status as species: Collingwood, 1961a: 64; Collingwood, 1961b: 289.
 * Junior synonym of pallidula: Atanassov & Dlussky, 1992: 123.
 * Junior synonym of koshewnikovi: Seifert, 2016b: 13.
 * orientalis. Pheidole pallidula subsp. orientalis Müller, 1923: 69 (s.w.) TURKESTAN.
 * [First available use of Pheidole pallidula subsp. arenarum var. orientalis Emery, 1915j: 230; unavailable (infrasubspecific) name.]
 * Karavaiev, 1926b: 107 (q.m.); Menozzi, 1936d: 280 (l.).
 * Subspecies of pallidula: Menozzi, 1928a: 126.
 * Junior synonym of pallidula: Baroni Urbani, 1964a: 3; Atanassov & Dlussky, 1992: 123.
 * Junior synonym of koshewnikovi: Seifert, 2016b: 13.

Taxonomic Notes
Pashaei Rad et al. (2018): Seifert (2016) considers Pheidole orientalis to be a junior synonym of P. koshnewnikovi. While there are similarities, the latter is consistently some 20% smaller than the orientalis type and those we report here.