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Pheidole moerens Wheeler, W.M. 1908
EOL Text
Ward, P. S., 2005:
I [introduced species]
Wilson, E. O.:
Pheidole moerens Wheeler 1908a: 136. Syn.: Pheidole moerens subsp. creola Wheeler and Mann 1914: 25, n. syn. ; Pheidole moerens subsp. dominicensis Wheeler 1913e: 241, synonymy by Naves 1985: 65.
Etymology Unknown, possibly Gr Moira, goddess of destiny.
Diagnosis Similar to exigua , flavens , nitidicollis , nuculiceps , orbica , pholeops , and sculptior , easily confused with the sympatric and abundant flavens , distinguished as follows.
Major: variably reddish brown; occiput smooth and shiny, and most of rest of head carinulate, with a small patch of rugoreticulum just behind the antennal fossa on each side; intercarinal spaces on head sparsely foveolate, subopaque to feebly shining; anterior half of pronotum carinulate; postpetiole from above elliptical.
Minor: medium to dark brown; small, loose rugoreticulum present mesad to each eye; rugulae extend posterior to eyes; all of head and mesosoma foveolate.
P. moerens is distinguished from flavens by the broader smooth space of the occiput and feebler intercarinular foveolation on the head of the major, and especially by the darker color and more extensive sculpturing of the minor.
Measurements (mm) Syntype major: HW 0.84, HL 0.90, SL 0.46, EL 0.10, PW 0.40. Syntype minor: HW 0.42, HL 0.48, SL 0.44, EL 0.06, PW 0.26. Color Major: medium reddish brown, with vertex a shade darker.
Minor: body medium to dark brown, appendages brownish yellow. According to Naves (1985), the shade of color in laboratory colonies fed with house flies is darker than in colonies fed only with honey.
Range Scattered populations occur in the West Indies (Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Culebra) and southern United States (Florida; Mobile, Alabama; Houston, Texas). The native range is unknown, but may be the Greater Antilles.
Biology On Sanibel Island, Florida, I found colonies of moerens abundant, nesting in sandy soil at the base of trees in parks and around houses; and in Houston in a rotting tree limb on the ground of a park. Naves (1985) records nests in northern Florida from a wide range of sites, under boards, at the base of trees and fence posts, along tree roots, under palm leaves, inside wall crevices, but only rarely in the soil. According to Naves, the colonies are monogynous, with nuptial flights usually occurring in July. Colonies grow to populations of 600 or more workers, of which somewhat fewer than 20 percent are majors. In nature they feed on seeds and insects, the latter taken alive or scavenged.
Figure Upper: syntype, major. Lower: syntype, minor. PUERTO RICO: Utuado. (Type locality: Culebra Island, West Indies.) Scale bars = 1 mm.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | AntWeb |
| Source | http://www.antweb.org/description.do?genus=pheidole&name=moerens&rank=species |
I [introduced species]
| License | |
| Rights holder/Author | No known copyright restrictions |
| Source | http://antbase.org/ants/publications/21008/21008.pdf |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 0
Specimens with Barcodes: 7
Species With Barcodes: 1
Diagnosis of worker among Antkey species. Worker castes bimorphic. Head shape ovoid (minor workers) or subrectangular with posterolateral lobes (majors), but never triangular. Antenna 12-segmented. Antennal club 3-segmented. Antennal insertions at least partly covered by frontal lobes; not surrounded by a raised sharp-edged ridge. Frontal lobes do not obscure face outline between mandible and eye; relatively close together so that the posteromedian portion of the clypeus, where it projects between the frontal lobes, is at most only slightly broader than one of the lobes. Posterolateral corners of head unarmed, without spines. Mandibles triangular. Mesosoma with erect hairs. Pronotal spines absent. Propodeum armed with spines or teeth. Slope of mesosoma steep. Waist 2-segmented. Petiole pedunculate with a distinct and upright node; lacking large "" class=""lexicon-term"">subpetiolar process. Postpetiole attached to lower surface of gaster; not swollen; in dorsal view not distinctly broader than long or distinctly wider than petiole. Minor worker characters. Head punctate. Antennal scapes extend beyond posterior margin of head. Antennal scrobe lacking. Postpetiole not swollen relative to petiole. Hairs on mesosoma fine and flexuous, not arranged in pairs. Major worker characters. Antennal scrobe weakly to moderately impressed, but some depression capable of receiving antennal scapes clearly visible. Cephalic carinae terminating well before posterior head margin [requires additional analysis]. Posterolateral lobes distinctly rugose. Posterolateral portion of cephalic dorsum smooth and shining, lacking sculpture. Promesonotum in profile with one distinct convexity.
Minor workers of P. moerens are most easily distinguished from P. fervens, P. megacephala, P. obscurithorax and P. teneriffana by the presence of an entirely punctate head. Pheidole flavens can be separated from P. anastasii, P. bilimeki and P. punctatissima by the erect mesosomal hairs, which are fine, flexuous and not arranged in pairs (versus stout, stiff and arranged in pairs). Separating P. moerens from the closely P. flavens is very difficult, and additional character analysis is required before the two can be reliably distinguished from each other.
The rugose posterolateral lobes of P. moerens major workers separate them from P. megacephala (smooth and shining posterolateral lobes) and from P. anastasii, P. bilimeki and P. punctatissima (punctate posterolateral lobes). The presence of an antennal scrobe and the less densely packed rugoreticulum on the posterolateral lobes separate them from P. obscurithorax. They are separated from P. fervens and P. teneriffana by the smooth (versus sculptured) posterolateral portion of the cephalic dorsum sculptured (best observed in profile), and also by the presence of one convexity (versus two convexities) on the promesonotum in profile. Although Wilson claimed the cephalic carinae of P. flavens approach the posterior head margin while those of P. moerens stop short of the posterior head margin, the character does not seem to hold true across all populations. Stefan Cover (pers. comm.) has suggested that the Florida populations of P. flavens and P. moerens are easily differentiated with the latter occupying a wide variety of habitats, including disturbed zones, and flavens occupying more shaded mesic habitats. He also suggested the Florida moerens may have a more flattened portion of the posterolateral lobes that is shinier with a less foveolate ground sculpture.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | Eli Sarnat, Antkey |
| Source | http://antkey.org/content/pheidole-moerens-1 |
Pheidole flavens
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | Eli Sarnat, Antkey |
| Source | http://antkey.org/node/32656 |
Pheidole moerens Wheeler HNS
Pheidole moerens Wheeler HNS 1908a: 136. Syn.: Pheidole moerens subsp. creola Wheeler HNS and Mann 1914: 25, n. syn. ; Pheidole moerens subsp. dominicensis Wheeler HNS 1913e: 241, synonymy by Naves 1985: 65.
Types Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.; Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard.
Etymology Unknown, possibly Gr Moira, goddess of destiny.
Diagnosis Similar to exigua HNS , flavens HNS , nitidicollis HNS , nuculiceps HNS , orbica HNS , pholeops HNS , and sculptior HNS , easily confused with the sympatric and abundant flavens HNS , distinguished as follows.
Major: variably reddish brown; occiput smooth and shiny, and most of rest of head carinulate, with a small patch of rugoreticulum just behind the antennal fossa on each side; intercarinal spaces on head sparsely foveolate, subopaque to feebly shining; anterior half of pronotum carinulate; postpetiole from above elliptical.
Minor: medium to dark brown; small, loose rugoreticulum present mesad to each eye; rugulae extend posterior to eyes; all of head and mesosoma foveolate.
P. moerens HNS is distinguished from flavens HNS by the broader smooth space of the occiput and feebler intercarinular foveolation on the head of the major, and especially by the darker color and more extensive sculpturing of the minor.
Measurements (mm) Syntype major: HW 0.84, HL 0.90, SL 0.46, EL 0.10, PW 0.40. Syntype minor: HW 0.42, HL 0.48, SL 0.44, EL 0.06, PW 0.26. Color Major: medium reddish brown, with vertex a shade darker.
Minor: body medium to dark brown, appendages brownish yellow. According to Naves (1985), the shade of color in laboratory colonies fed with house flies is darker than in colonies fed only with honey.
Range Scattered populations occur in the West Indies (Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Culebra) and southern United States (Florida; Mobile, Alabama; Houston, Texas). The native range is unknown, but may be the Greater Antilles.
Biology On Sanibel Island, Florida, I found colonies of moerens HNS abundant, nesting in sandy soil at the base of trees in parks and around houses; and in Houston in a rotting tree limb on the ground of a park. Naves (1985) records nests in northern Florida from a wide range of sites, under boards, at the base of trees and fence posts, along tree roots, under palm leaves, inside wall crevices, but only rarely in the soil. According to Naves, the colonies are monogynous, with nuptial flights usually occurring in July. Colonies grow to populations of 600 or more workers, of which somewhat fewer than 20 percent are majors. In nature they feed on seeds and insects, the latter taken alive or scavenged.
Figure Upper: syntype, major. Lower: syntype, minor. PUERTO RICO: Utuado. (Type locality: Culebra Island, West Indies.) Scale bars = 1 mm.
| License | Public Domain |
| Rights holder/Author | No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation. |
| Source | http://treatment.plazi.org/id/B6D941CFFED65FD4246E543528FA2707 |
Pheidole moerens Wheeler HNS 1908a
I [introduced species]
- Ward, P. S. (2005): A synoptic review of the ants of California (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zootaxa 936, 1-68: null, URL:http://antbase.org/ants/publications/21008/21008.pdf
| License | Public Domain |
| Rights holder/Author | No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation. |
| Source | http://treatment.plazi.org/id/8ED19CED0F4EFE600F090296C0122523 |
Diagnosis of worker among Antkey species. Worker castes bimorphic. Head shape ovoid (minor workers) or subrectangular with posterolateral lobes (majors), but never triangular. Antenna 12-segmented. Antennal club 3-segmented. Antennal insertions at least partly covered by frontal lobes; not surrounded by a raised sharp-edged ridge. Frontal lobes do not obscure face outline between mandible and eye; relatively close together so that the posteromedian portion of the clypeus, where it projects between the frontal lobes, is at most only slightly broader than one of the lobes. Posterolateral corners of head unarmed, without spines. Mandibles triangular. Mesosoma with erect hairs. Pronotal spines absent. Propodeum armed with spines or teeth. Slope of mesosoma steep. Waist 2-segmented. Petiole pedunculate with a distinct and upright node; lacking large subpetiolar process. Postpetiole attached to lower surface of gaster; not swollen; in dorsal view not distinctly broader than long or distinctly wider than petiole. Minor worker characters. Head punctate. Antennal scapes extend beyond posterior margin of head. Antennal scrobe lacking. Postpetiole not swollen relative to petiole. Hairs on mesosoma fine and flexuous, not arranged in pairs. Major worker characters. Antennal scrobe weakly to moderately impressed, but some depression capable of receiving antennal scapes clearly visible. Cephalic carinae terminating well before posterior head margin [requires additional analysis]. Posterolateral lobes distinctly rugose. Posterolateral portion of cephalic dorsum smooth and shining, lacking sculpture. Promesonotum in profile with one distinct convexity.
Minor workers of P. moerens are most easily distinguished from P. fervens, P. megacephala, P. obscurithorax and P. teneriffana by the presence of an entirely punctate head. Pheidole flavens can be separated from P. anastasii, P. bilimeki and P. punctatissima by the erect mesosomal hairs, which are fine, flexuous and not arranged in pairs (versus stout, stiff and arranged in pairs). Separating P. moerens from the closely P. flavens is very difficult, and additional character analysis is required before the two can be reliably distinguished from each other.
The rugose posterolateral lobes of P. moerens major workers separate them from P. megacephala (smooth and shining posterolateral lobes) and from P. anastasii, P. bilimeki and P. punctatissima (punctate posterolateral lobes). The presence of an antennal scrobe and the less densely packed rugoreticulum on the posterolateral lobes separate them from P. obscurithorax. They are separated from P. fervens and P. teneriffana by the smooth (versus sculptured) posterolateral portion of the cephalic dorsum sculptured (best observed in profile), and also by the presence of one convexity (versus two convexities) on the promesonotum in profile. Although Wilson claimed the cephalic carinae of P. flavens approach the posterior head margin while those of P. moerens stop short of the posterior head margin, the character does not seem to hold true across all populations. Stefan Cover (pers. comm.) has suggested that the Florida populations of P. flavens and P. moerens are easily differentiated with the latter occupying a wide variety of habitats, including disturbed zones, and flavens occupying more shaded mesic habitats. He also suggested the Florida moerens may have a more flattened portion of the posterolateral lobes that is shinier with a less foveolate ground sculpture.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | Eli Sarnat, Antkey |
| Source | http://antkey.org/node/32656 |
Taxonomic history
| Wheeler & Wheeler, 1972b PDF: 244 (l.). |
| Senior synonym of Pheidole dominicensis: Naves, 1985 PDF: 65; of Pheidole creola: Wilson, 2003A: 461. |
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | AntWeb |
| Source | http://www.antweb.org/description.do?genus=pheidole&name=moerens&rank=species |
Hawaii Island
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | AntWeb |
| Source | http://www.antweb.org/description.do?genus=pheidole&name=moerens&rank=species |