Pheidole sinaitica Mayr - majors

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MAJOR - new description TL ca 5 mm; CI 97 SI 60 OI 18
Head in full face view cordate with a deeply impressed occiput
Mandibles small and relatively weak, almost wholly smooth other than for weak striations on the outer base.
Clypeus shiny with a distinct but narrow median longitudinal carina
Frontal carinae very short and almost parallel
Antennae with both scapes and funiculi slender but moderately long; funiculus segments 2-7 all longer than they are wide
Eye fairly small and weakly ovoid circular (13 facets long X 10 wide); set 1.7 X its own length back from the lateral margin of the clypeus
Hypostoma with a narrow border of the same colour as the rest of the underside of the head, bearing quite large submedian teeth and no median or lateral teeth
Underside of head almost completely smooth and shiny
Alitrunk profile with a strongly domed pro-mesonotum, a weak transverse welt on the mesonotum without a pronounced drop into a very shallow metanotal groove; the propodeum profile is weakly convex with very small triangular teeth; the dorsum of the propodeum has a shallow but distinct longitudinal groove which widens from front to back
Petiole in profile with the posterior faced angled inwards from top to bottom, the upper margin rounded and medially impressed
Postpetiole small and globular, in profile ovoid without lateral processes on the lower posterior margin
Gaster distinctly smaller than the head and quite narrow with a straight anterior margin
Erect pilosity quite long, fine and quite abundant; pubescence short, adpressed but quite abundant.
Overall appearance, opaque and weakly shiny; sculpturation on head confined to fine striations on anterior two-thirds; mesonotum and propodeum with faint but distinct longitudinal striations; General colour yellow-brown, with the gaster and mandibles darker

The photomontage of a major worker from the santschii type collection is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=casent0907793.

The pPhotomontage of major specimens collected in Algeria, Oued Agelil, 19.iii.1914, collected by V Geyer; the Pheidole pallidula Nyl. v. inermis n.v. of Stitz (1917: 340), is collated from http://www.antweb.org/specimen.do?name=focol1298

Photomontage of a major worker collected in Egypt and identified by Mostafa Sharat, from Ghazal Is, Aswan; E 32°53' N 24°05'; 2.v.2002.

Second major from Egypt

Photomontage of a major worker from Israel, Tel Aviv Botanical Garden, 19.iii.2007, collected by Armin Ionescu.