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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2020)

Distribution:

  Geographic regions (According to curated Geolocale/Taxon lists):
    Americas: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama
  Biogeographic regions (According to curated Bioregion/Taxon lists):
    Neotropical

Distribution Notes:

Guatemala to Panama. Costa Rica: Atlantic slope from sea level to 1100m; one record from 700m on Osa Peninsula.

Biology:

Natural History:

Pheidole fiorii inhabits mature wet forest understory. It makes hemispherical carton nests under individual leaves of palms, aroids, and other large-leaved plants. The nests are on the order of 10cm across, and usually at head height or lower. Colonies appear to be monogynous and with a single nest (not polydomous). Small epiphyte seedlings may occasionally sprout from the surface of the nest (figure), but they never develop to large size. Pheidole fiorii is part of a set of ant species that build nests under individual live leaves, the others being Apterostigma collare, Paratrechina caeciliae, Tapinoma inrectum, Wasmannia JTL-001, and Dendromyrmex spp. (Black 1987).

Images of nests: click here.

Observations at La Selva and Penas Blancas suggest large changes in abundance of fiorii. There are times when fiorii appears to be very abundant in the forest (the nests are relatively conspicuous), and other times when they seem to be almost totally absent. It is unknown whether changes reflect regular patterns of movement associated with seasonality, or long-term declines in abundance.

References:

Black, R. W. 1987. The biology of leaf nesting ants in a tropical wet forest. Biotropica 19:319-325.

Taxonomic Treatment (provided by Plazi)

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 67 times found in montane wet forest, 42 times found in mature wet forest, 8 times found in wet forest, 3 times found in tropical wet forest, 6 times found in cloud forest, primary, along steep ridge near peak, 5 times found in lowland rainforest, 6 times found in cloud forest, old second growth forest, 2 times found in cloud forest, 2 times found in La Selva, 4 times found in Sura, ...

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 36 times Sobre Vegetacion, 41 times ex sifted leaf litter, 7 times carton nest under leaf, 9 times at bait, 4 times beating vegetation, 1 times pecan sandie bait, 6 times Hojarasca, 4 times Sura, 1 times abajo de hoja de palma, 1 times nest under leaf, Pheidole fiorii, colony with queens and males [I found this collection in times 3323, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 36 times Sweeping, 40 times miniWinkler, 17 times search, 20 times baiting, 18 times Malaise, 12 times Fogging, 7 times beating, 8 times flight intercept trap, 5 times Mini Winkler, 4 times Winkler, 2 times Search & Berles, ...

Elevations: collected from 5 - 1480 meters, 509 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1924-06-21 and 2020-01-11

Type specimens: syntype of Pheidole fiorii: casent0904348, casent0904349; type of Pheidole fiorii: focol1428, focol1429; unpublished name: Pheidole fiorii tuisiana: casent0908095, casent0908096

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