Pheidole spadonia

Three colonies were found in a vacant lot in Tucson by Stefan Cover (unpublished field notes), nesting in clayey soil; two had cryptic entrances, and one had a rudimentary crescentic crater of excavated soil. Wheeler’s type series were taken from nests in open sandy soil, the entrances of which were also marked by incomplete craters. The species harvests seeds. (Wilson 2003)

Identification
See the description in the nomenclature section.

Distribution
Southern Arizona into Mexico. (Wilson 2003)

This taxon was described from the United States.

Nomenclature

 *  spadonia. Pheidole spadonia Wheeler, W.M. 1915b: 400 (s.w.) U.S.A. Creighton & Gregg, 1955: 23 (q.). See also: Wilson, 2003: 600.

Description
From Wilson (2003): DIAGNOSIS A large reddish yellow (light “orange”) member of the pilifera group.

Major: anterior half of head densely carinulate, with a few carinulae traveling along the dorsal midline all the way to the occiput, and the entire remainder of the body smooth and shiny; propodeal spines well-developed and vertical to the basal propodeal face; the petiolar node seen from the side tapering to a point; the postpetiole seen from above very broad, and spinose.

Minor: propodeal spines well-developed and vertical to basal propodeal face; almost all of the head and mesosoma smooth and shiny.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Lectotype major: HW 1.72, HL 2.14, SL 0.78, EL 0.22, PW 0.86. Paralectotype minor: HW 0.54, HL 0.60, SL 0.56, EL 0.14, PW 0.38.

COLOR Major: concolorous light reddish yellow (light “orange”).

Minor: concolorous yellow, with a slight reddish tinge on the head.

Type Material
- as reported in Wilson (2003)

Type Locality Information
ARIZONA: Santa Cruz River, Tucson, col W. M. Wheeler. (Wilson 2003)

Etymology
L spadonia, impotent, sterile; allusion unknown. (Wilson 2003)

Additional References
Wheeler, W. M. 1915. Some additions to the North American antfauna. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 34: 389–421.

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