Species: Pheidole exarata

Distribution:

Costa Rica (type locality), Colombia. Costa Rica: Atlantic slope to 1600m.

Biology:

Natural History:

Occurs in mature wet forest habitats (including cloud forest); arboreal, forming large polygynous(?) nests beneath epiphytes in high canopy.

Notes:

The morphospecies we called JTL-119 is probably Emery's exarata, based on the line drawings in Wilson (2003) and the type locality.

Pheidole grantae Forel was described from Costa del Tablazo, Costa Rica, a montane site near Cartago. It appears to be a more heavily sculptured version of P. exarata, with the first gastral tergite fully shagreened and the foveolate sculpture extending more posteriorly on the face of the major. We consider these differences to be intraspecific variation.

There is a complex of Pheidole species showing a geographic mosaic of differentiated forms. Members of this complex include excubitor Wilson 2003, exarata Emery 1896, and stulta Forel 1886. Wilson (2003) synonymized two forms, championi Forel 1899 and championi sima Forel 1912, under stulta. The type locality of stulta is Bahia, Brazil. Pheidole championi was described from Panama, Volcan de Chiriqui. Pheidole championi var. sima was described from Costa Rica, "Canas Gudas" [probably Puntarenas Province, Canas Gordas, a site very near Volcan Chiriqui]. Thus technically stulta occurs in Costa Rica. Pheidole stulta appears to be a shinier version of excubitor. The minor has a completely shiny face and pronotum, and more of the face of the major is smooth and shining. No cases are known where any of these forms are sympatric. It remains to be seen whether this "stulta complex" is multiple species or one geographically variable species.

See excubitor.

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2010)

References:

Wilson, E. O. 2003. Pheidole in the New World: A Dominant, Hyperdiverse Ant Genus. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass

2 Specimens Imaged | View All 51 Specimens for this species

JTLC000014080

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JTLC000014081

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