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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2023)

// Distribution

Distribution:

  Geographic regions (According to curated Geolocale/Taxon lists):
    Americas: Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Galapagos Islands, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, United States
    Asia: India
  Biogeographic regions (According to curated Bioregion/Taxon lists):
    Indomalaya, Nearctic, Neotropical
  Native to (according to species list records):
    Indomalaya, Neotropical bioregions

Distribution Notes:

Very widespread in Neotropics: Florida, West Indies, Central America, South America to southern Brazil. Costa Rica: throughout the country to about 1000m elevation.

Biology:

This species is very common and very generalized. It is found in dry forest and wet forest habitats. It is common in Winkler samples and at baits. Nests are found in small cavities (under dead wood on ground, in dead sticks, in dead knots on tree trunks, under bark flaps, under epiphytes) from litter layer to high canopy.

Wilson (2005) observed that P. flavens and two other species of small Pheidole (bilimeki and nebulosa) frequently prey on oribatid mites in the leaf litter.

 

Comments:

BOLD specimens show multiple clusters of flavens-like specimens. One cluster is from Nicaragua and NW Costa Rica. One is from Belize, central and north coastal Honduras, NW and eastern Costa Rica. One is from BCI, Panama. One is from Ecuador. Two clusters are sympatric in NW Costa Rica. No morphological differences have been detected.

Notes:

Wilson (2003) considers there to be two closely related species, flavens and exigua, that have broadly overlapping ranges. The type locality of exigua is French Guiana. The type locality of flavens is Cuba (based on a Neotype designated by Wilson). In the key to the flavens group the two species are distinguished at couplet 129: the edges of the pronotal humeri bear small patches of rugoreticulum in flavens and lack rugoreticulum in exigua. We have not been able to separate Costa Rican material into two species.

 

References:

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

Wilson, E. O. 2005. Oribatid mite predation by small ants of the genus Pheidole. Insectes Sociaux 52:263-265.

Taxonomic Treatment (provided by Plazi)

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 174 times found in mature wet forest, 110 times found in montane wet forest, 102 times found in tropical rainforest, 100 times found in tropical wet forest, 83 times found in 2º lowland rainforest, 63 times found in tropical moist forest, 35 times found in 2º wet forest, 21 times found in wet forest, 30 times found in rainforest, 33 times found in lowland rainforest, ...

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 590 times ex sifted leaf litter, 169 times at bait, 48 times Hojarasca, 18 times sifted litter, 12 times ex sifted litter, 9 times beating vegetation, 6 times Sobre Vegetacion, 3 times at baits, 4 times Del cruce de Cascante hacia el Ceibo, 1 times nest under rock, 4 times Del cruce de Cascante hacia 1070m, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 473 times miniWinkler, 155 times baiting, 108 times Winkler, 62 times search, 52 times MaxiWinkler, 38 times Berlese, 44 times Mini Winkler, 32 times Fogging, 29 times Malaise, 13 times bait, 13 times Beating, ...

Elevations: collected from 2 - 1860 meters, 310 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1927-06-05 00:00:00.0 and 2021-05-30 00:00:00.0

Type specimens: Lectotype of Pheidole flavens tuberculata: casent0915953; Not Provided: casent0283262, casent0713566, casent0713567, casent0717927; paralectotype of Pheidole flavens tuberculata: casent0915954; paratype Pheidole kuna: jtlc000016422; syntype of Pheidole flavens vincentensis: casent0901615; syntype of Pheidole flavens gracilior: casent0908267, casent0908268; syntype of Pheidole flavens haytiana: casent0908260; syntype of Pheidole flavens navigans: casent0908270; syntype of Pheidole flavens vincentensis: casent0908261, casent0908262; syntype of Pheidole flavens spei: casent0913323, casent0913324; type of Pheidole flavens haytiana: focol0032, focol0033; Type of unavailable quadrinomial: Pheidole flavens tuberculata platensis: casent0908276, casent0908277; Type of unavailable quadrinomial: Pheidole flavens tuberculata putata: casent0908275

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