Pheidole humeralis Wheeler

Pheidole humeralis Wheeler

Pheidole humeralis Wheeler 1908h: 456.

Types Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard.

Etymology L humeralis, of the shoulder, alluding to the elevated humerus of the major.

Diagnosis Similar in some traits to furtiva, mera, and tysoni, differing as follows.

Major: reddish yellow, with pale brown spot on vertex; head elongate, its posterior ventral profile flat; humeri strongly developed and subangulate, in dorsal view overhanging the rest of the pronotum beneath them and in dorsal-oblique view extending more than 4X higher above the metanotal groove than the mesonotal convexity; propodeal spines robust, as long as half the propodeal basal face preceding them; postpetiole from above oval.

Minor: posterior half of head and all of pronotum smooth and shiny; in dorsal-oblique view, humerus subangulate and promesonotal profile behind it flat before dropping to metanotal groove; occiput broad, its margin strongly concave. Measurements (mm) Holotype major: HW 1.02, HL 1.28, SL 0.52, EL 0.12, PW 0.60. Paratype minor: HW 0.50, HL 0.52, SL 0.46, EL 0.08, PW 0.32.

Color Major: body and appendages medium reddish yellow except for pale brown spot on vertex and yellowish brown gaster. Minor: body medium brown, appendages yellowish brown.

Range Known only from the type locality and western Texas (Moody and Francke 1982).

biology P. humeralis is evidently a rare species. During their intensive collecting in western Texas, Moody and Francke (1982) found the species only once, four colonies in Kinney County at 220 meters nesting in open clayey soil.

Figure Upper: lectotype, major. Lower: paralectotype, minor. TEXAS: Corsicana, Navarro Co., near Dallas-Ft. Worth (Mary Cooper). Scale bars = 1 mm.