Pheidole laticeps Mayr - new status
MAJOR
MINOR Type location Egypt (Pheidole
sinaitica Mayr, subsp. laticeps nov. subspec., Mayr, 1904b:
6, major & minor) collected from under a stone near Cairo.
Mayr's (1904b) description is at ).
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Francis Gilbert has translated the Mayr (1904b)
description of Pheidole
sinaitica ssp laticeps as -
The major has a clearly broader head than in the type [Pheidole
sinaitica] ssp (Stammform = basic or original form), but not so
wide as in Pheidole
megacephala Fabr., the sculpture of the head reaches less
behind so that the backwards-lying antennal stem, scape, obviously
exceeds the longitudinal wrinkling of the head and the posterior
quarter of the head is smooth, whilst in the type ssp the (antennal)
stem reaches right to the rear end of the sculpturing which centrally
stretches right to the outside edge of the posterior edge of the head
so that only the posterior corners of the head forwards to the deepest
outside edge of the posterior edge of the head are smooth. The spines
of the propodeum [medial segment] are somewhat shorter than the type
spp.
The worker is distinguished from the type ssp mainly by the shorter
spines, which can also adopt the shape of teeth (not longer than their
basal width). Found under stones on the bank of the Nile at Cairo.
Egypt records - recorded from Cairo by Emery
(1889a: 442); in HNS as Pheidole
sinaitica subsp. laticeps Mayr (1904b: 6, major &
minor) from under a stone at Nilufer near Cairo; Menozzi (1929e: 125)
workers from Sinai oases at Feiran and Wadi Tarfa, collected by F S
Bodenheimer. Alfieri (1931) listed one finding from Charkieh Province,
Senchawa, 26.x.1925; also in Mohamed et al (2001).
Mohamad (1979) thesis had - Egypt (Det. Crawley, 1927) (Coll.Alf.)
Gebel Elba, 22.i.1933 (Coll.Min.) Abu Mena, 8.iv.1954; Benha,
6.ii.1975; Cairo, 16.iii.,29.iv.1975; Alexandria, 27.iii.1975 (Coll.Ain.)
Egypt (Det. Crawley, 1927) (Coll.Soc.)
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