The Ants of Africa
Genus Pheidole
Pheidole crassinoda Emery

crassinoda group; major with cordiform (heart-shaped) head - Arnold (1920a) group H

{Pheidole crassinoda ruspolii}

Pheidole crassinoda Emery

Major - return to key Minor - return to key {link to the Hymenoptera Name Server} Type location South Africa (Emery, 1895h: 32, major & minor; Mayr, 1907b: 12, queen & male); subspecies pluto (Arnold, 1920a: 473, major & minor) from Mozambique, ruspolii (Emery, 1897e: 597, major & minor; Forel, 1907c: 138, male; Arnold, 1920a: 475, queen) from Ethiopia, sordidula (Santschi, 1937a: 54, major, minor & male) from Tanzania, and cerdo (Santschi, 1937a: 54, all forms) from South Africa; all forms known (see Bolton, 1995) .

Emery's (1895h) description is at {original description}. Mayr's (1907b) description of the queen & male is at {original description}. Arnold (1920a) gave a translation, this is at {original description}. Arnold's (1920a) description of pluto is at {original description}. Emery's (1897e) description of ruspolii is at {original description}. Forel's (1907c) description of the ruspolii male is at {original description}. Arnold (1920a) gave an illustrated translation of ruspolii, this is at {original description} and {original description}. Santschi's (1937a) description of sordidula is at {original description}. Santschi's (1937a) description of cerdo is at {original description}.

This may be an immigrant from savannah woodland, as Kemp (1951) studied its foraging activity and related how it was among the principal predators of the eggs of tsetse flies at Shinyanga in Tanzania (as Tanganyika). There it was ground-nesting. The identification had been by Donisthorpe, of the British Museum (Natural History), and Kemp noted how the workers were inseparable from those of Pheidole sculpturata Mayr.

{Pheidole crassinoda major}The specimens in these field photographs, nest below, were taken in Pretoria, South Africa, by Joan Young; nos 101_1551 to 1556 & 101_1567 to 1568. A single major was photographed whilst being attacked and dismembered by the much smallerPheidole foreli - see photograph on that species page

{Pheidole crassinoda minor}The photomontage is of a minor specimen collected from Usambara Mts, Tanzania; Zigi Lodge, Amani NR; S 5°05' E 38°38'; 2200 m; Vasily Grebennikov, 3-8.x.2002. Other images can be seen in the folder at - {original description}

{Pheidole crassinoda}The photomontage is of a minor specimen from Congo, Brazzaville, pitfall trapped by Yves Braet & Eric Zassi, 2007.

Other images can be seen in the folder at - Congo - {original description}

{Pheidole crassinoda sexuals}The Sexuals from Arnold (1920a, 1926: Pl. VI).

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© 2007, 2008, 2009 - Brian Taylor CBiol FIBiol FRES
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