Pheidole claviscapa

Pheidole claviscapa Santschi

Pheidole claviscapa Santschi 1925d: 224.

Types Naturhist. Mus. Basel.

Etymology L Gr claviscapa, "club stem," referring to the swollen and somewhat flattened base of the antennal scape.

diagnosis One of the giant Neotropical species, comparable in size to cephalica and fimbriata of the tristis group (q.v.). Major: very large, Head Width about 2.1 mm; antennal scape broadly swollen and flattened at base; space between eye and antennal fossa rugoreticulate; entire median strip of gaster shagreened.

Minor: head in full-face view elliptical in outline, with nuchal crest; entire head, except frontal triangle, and mesosoma and waist foveolate and opaque; anterior half of first gastral tergite shagreened.

Measurements (mm) Major (Anapolis, Brazil): HW 2.10, HL 2.24, SL 1.20, EL 0.26, PW 1.04. Minor (Anapolis, Brazil): HW 0.80, HL 1.04, SL 1.36, EL 0.20, PW 0.62. Color Major and minor: reddish yellow ("orange") or reddish brown.

Range Recorded from Minas Gerais, Goias, Mato Grosso, and Ceara by Kempf (1972b). I have seen in addition a series from Santa Cruz, eastern Bolivia (P. S. Ward).

biology The preferred habitat is evidently cerrado, the tropical savanna of central South America.

Figure Upper: major; the antennal scape viewed edge-on is depicted next to the frontal view of the head;

the upper of the two dorsal-oblique views is of a syntype major. Lower: minor. BRAZIL: Anapolis, Goias (W. Kempf).

Compared with syntypes. (Type locality: Pirapora, Minas Gerais, Brazil.) Scale bars = 1 mm.