Current View: All Antweb

Cite this page

View in AntCat

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2017)

Distribution:

(based on species list records)
Neotropical Region: Alajuela, Americas, Central America, Costa Rica, Heredia, Jinotega, Nicaragua, Puntarenas, San José

Distribution Notes:

Nicaragua, Costa Rica. Costa Rica: widespread in wet forest areas, to 2000m in Braulio Carrillo, to 800m in Penas Blancas.

Biology:

This species occurs in wet forest habitats, from sea level to 1400m elevation. Nests are in rotten wood or dead sticks on or near the forest floor. Workers are occasionally collected in Winkler or Berlese samples, but have not been collected at baits.

Notes:

Additional collections of this species have blurred the distinction between erratilis and petersoni. There appears to be one species with variable sculpture on the pronotum. The images on this page are from the same nest series as the holotype of erratilis. Click here to see the old petersoni page, which contains images from the nest series of the holotype of petersoni.

Taxonomic Treatment (provided by Plazi)

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 6 times found in mature wet forest, 2 times found in ridgetop cloud forest, 3 times found in wet forest, 4 times found in montane wet forest, 1 times found in wet forest stream edge, 2 times found in ridgetop cloud forest, isolated peak with oak trees.

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 8 times ex sifted leaf litter, 1 times wet forest; in dead wood on ground, 1 times under epiphytes, 3 times Sobre Vegetacion, 1 times in Cecropia polyphlebia internodes, 1 times at bait, 1 times Wet forest. Ex sifted leaf litter., 2 times Primary forest. Ex sifted leaf litter., 1 times New second growth veg. behind house; bananas, Piper, tall grass. Nest in dead Pi, 1 times beating veg., 1 times OTS 93-1 student project, K. Schultz, nests in Lecythis pods on ground, pod #601, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 3 times search, 7 times miniWinkler, 5 times Winkler, 2 times baiting, 3 times Sweeping, 1 times beating, 1 times Malaise.

Elevations: collected from 50 - 1420 meters, 733 meters average

Type specimens: holotype major Pheidole erratilis: inbiocri001282706; holotype major Pheidole petersoni: inbiocri002279955; paratype Pheidole erratilis: inbiocri001238400, inbiocri001282245, inbiocri001282705, inbiocri001283252, inbiocri001283254, inbiocri002279716, inbiocri002279929, inbiocri002279930, inbiocri002279931, inbiocri002279932, inbiocri002279933, inbiocri002279934, inbiocri002279935

See something amiss? Send us an email.

AntWeb is hosted and supported by the California Academy of Sciences.