Pheidole rotundata Forel
  Type location Mozambique
(Pheidole rotundata n. sp.,
Forel, 1894b: 92, major & minor, from Delagoa, Dr Liengme - see
below; Arnold, 1920a: 426, male and
illustrated notes; Santschi, 1932a: 384, queen); note Emery, 1915j:
236, regarded it as a subspecies of megacephala but Arnold
(1920a) had it as a full species and it clearly differs, amongst other
facts being much larger, from megacephala
junior synonym ilgi (Pheidole
rotundata Forel, subsp. Ilgi n. subsp., Forel, 1907g: 82,
major & minor;
Forel, 1907c: 139, queen & male; new
synonymy here) from Ethiopia, Harar,
collectors Ilg &
Ratgeber, also from Pemba Is, Dr Voeltzkow; which was placed as a
subspecies of megacephala by Emery (1915j: 236) is as
originally described a subspecies (or junior synonym) of rotundata
all forms described
(see Bolton, 1995)  .
|
 Forel's (1894b)
description is at  . Forel's (1907g)
description of the ilgi workers is at  . Forel's (1907c)
description of the ilgii queen and male is at  . Arnold's (1920a)
translation of rotundata
is at  . Under megacephala
ilgii, Arnold (1920a) noted the head of the rotundata major
is widest in posterior fourth. Santschi's (1932a) description of the
queen is at  .
In a footnote to his description of Pheidole aurivilli, Mayr (1896:
238) wrote:
"I was able to restudy the original specimen of Pheidole punctulata, which I
described in the year 1866, due to the friendly willingness of Mr.
Professor Chr. Aurivillius, with the conclusion that Professor Forel
was
right as rain to recognize this form as a variety of Pheidole megacephala Fabr. (In
contrast) I do not agree with Forel’s opinion, that Pheidole rotundata Forel might be
just an extreme form of Pheidole
punctulata, because the rounded-quadratic head, the hind frontal
carinae strongly directed outwards, the strongly curved forehead and
the strongly curved posterior part of the mesonotum down-sloping nearly
vertical in front of the meso-metanotal suture are opposite to his
opinion."
[Translation by Marcus Stuben].
Note: The type images below (botttom of
the page) of ilgi are closely similar to the rotundata types. The ilgi major is slightly smaller but
the minor is marginally larger. The fresh workers from South Africa
show the colour of iIgi.
|
 The
photomontage is of a worker from Sudan,
collected by J Mathews, by pyrethrum fogging of Acacia senegal;
Rahad Research Area - 12°56' N 30°35' E; 2.x.2001; semi-natural forest,
JM 340, 1 minor
worker.
|
The photomontage of the
type major worker is collated
from 
The photomontage of the
type minor worker is collated
from 
The photomontage of the
type queen is collated
from 
The photomontage of the
type male is collated
from 
The
photomontage is of a major worker collected from 
The
photomontage is of a minor worker collected from 
The photomontage of a
type queen is collated
from 
The photomontage of
the 
The photomontage of
the