Pheidole sculptior

On St. Vincent in the early 1890s, the avid collector H. H. Smith (in Forel 1893j) found sculptior to be relatively scarce but very adaptable in habitat. Ranging from sea level to 500 m, it occurred in forests, seashore thickets, and open land. Nests were in loamy soil under pieces of dead wood or stones; one was found in a piece of rotten wood. The colonies were small, in one instance noted by Smith comprising about 200 workers. On Grenada in 1995, Stefan Cover and I found a colony under a rock in a banana plantation at 300 m. On Trinidad, Cover found two other colonies under the bark of rotting logs. A male was present with one of the latter on 19 May, and a winged queen with a Puerto Rico colony collected by J. A. Torres on 26 November. (Wilson 2003)

Identification
See the description in the nomenclature section.

Distribution
Recorded by Kempf (1972b) from Puerto Rico, Martinique, St. Vincent, Trinidad, and Venezuela. I have confirmed series from Puerto Rico, St. Vincent, Trinidad, and Suriname. (Wilson 2003)

This taxon was described from Antilles.

Nomenclature

 *  sculptior. Pheidole flavens r. sculptior Forel, 1893g: 414 (s.w.q.) ANTILLES. Raised to species: Wilson, 2003: 506. Senior synonym of tayroni: Longino, 2009: 74.
 * tayrona. Pheidole tayrona Wilson, 2003: 518, figs. (s.w.) COLOMBIA. Junior synonym of sculptior: Longino, 2009: 74.

Description
From Wilson (2003): DIAGNOSIS A member of the “flavens complex” within the larger flavens group, comprising Pheidole asperithorax, Pheidole breviscapa (=Pheidole perpusilla), Pheidole cardiella, Pheidole chloe, Pheidole exigua, Pheidole flavens, Pheidole goeldii, Pheidole moerens, Pheidole mittermeieri, Pheidole nuculiceps, Pheidole pholeops, Pheidole sculptior, Pheidole striaticeps and Pheidole trinitatis differing in the following combination of traits.

Major: carinulae originating on frontal lobes and mesad to frontal carinae travel all the way to the occipital border, turning slightly away from the midline as they progress; shallow antennal scrobes present, their surfaces foveolate and opaque and bearing carinulae inside their anterior half; in dorsal-oblique view, promesonotal dorsal profile is weakly bilobous and descends posteriorly through a gentle gradient to the metanotal groove; pronotal dorsum foveolate and opaque, entirely lacking in carinulae; postpetiolar node trapezoidal viewed from above.

Minor: close to flavens, with carinulae restricted to anterior half of head, and all of head, mesosoma, and side of waist foveolate and opaque.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Lectotype major: HW 0.78, HL 0.78, SL 0.42, EL 0.10, PW 0.34. Paralectotype minor: HW 0.38, HL 0.42, SL 0.36, EL 0.06, PW 0.24.

COLOR Major: mandibles and most of body light brownish yellow; gaster, antennae, and legs medium yellow.

Minor: concolorous yellow.



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

Type Material
- as reported in Wilson (2003)

Type Locality Information
ST. VINCENT, WEST INDIES, col. H. H. Smith. (Wilson 2003)

Etymology
L sculptior, more engraved, presumably with reference to the more extensive sculpturing of the major head. (Wilson 2003)

Additional References
Forel, A. 1893. Formicides de l’Antille St. Vincent, récoltés par Mons. H. H. Smith. Trans. Entomol. Soc. Lond. 1893: 333–418.

Kempf, W. W. 1972d. A study of some Neotropical ants of genus Pheidole Westwood. I. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Stud. Entomol. 15: 449–464.

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