Pheidole pallidula (Nylander) - minors
Nylander (1842) gave the minor as pale rust; sparse long
hairs, long antennae, TL 2 mm, Messina, Sicily. In brief, the
description of O. subdentata major by Mayr, 1853a, 1855; Emery,
1869; was TL 4.23 mm; mandibles smooth, with fine points; reddish
yellow, hind leg brownish; Austria.
MINOR - new description TL ca 2.7 mm; pronotal
width = PW, PI = (PW/ HW) X 100;
CI 87 SI 124 OI 22 - Spain - Gomez
CI 83 SI 123 OI 25 PI 65 - Croatia - Antweb
CI 87 SI 121 OI 26 PI 63 - Egypt - Kaseh
The head is subrectangular with no more than weakly convex sides but
rounded posterior angles and a slight median convexity of the occiput;
without a nuchal collar
The mandibles moderately long, with a mixture of minute teeth and small
teeth on the masticatory margin; and with a single larger apical teeth;
there is a distinctive covering of curved erect hairs, these are absent
of inconspicuous in the other group members
The anterior margin of the clypeus is evenly but shallowly convex and
is completely smooth; with a central pair of conspicuous forward facing
long hairs and finer, shorter, lateral hairs
The frontal carinae are very short and almost parallel; set quite close
together, about one-third the width of the head at the level of the
antennal insertions
Scapes long and slender, thickening very slightly in the apical
one-third, surpassing the occiput by about 1/6 of their length;
funiculus about 1.4 X longer than scape; the 3-segmented club has the
apical segment no longer than either the other two; the pre-apical
segments are about less than twice as long as they are wide
The eye is quite large and quite strongly convex; the anteriormost
point is a little more than its own length back from the anterior point
of the genae
The alitrunk profile has the promesonotum evenly and moderately convex
with the pro-mesonotal suture just visible and not interrupting the
profile; from above the pronotum is near circular and evenly convex at
the widest point; the metanotal groove is distinct and fairly deeply
impressed both dorsally and laterally; the propodeum has the dorsum
convex in profile and faint lateral margination culminating in small
teeth or angular prominences, the declivity is slightly convex
The petiole has a fairly short pedicel and a moderately high, narrowly
triangular profile, with the apex angular, the posterior face is convex;
The postpetiole has a fairly high globular profile and from above is
hexagonal and about twice as wide as the petiole
The gaster is globular viewed both laterally and, less so, from above;
it has a straight anterior margin
The legs are relatively long with moderately swollen femora
The whole of the head, body, antennae and legs bear quite fine erect
hairs; these stand up in such a way as to give the ant a shaggy
appearance
Shiny with very little sculpturation other than very fine longitudinal
striations on the lateral head and quite coarse puncturation on the
lateral mesonotum and the propodeum
Overall yellow-brown (Egypt specimens generally darker) without
particularly darker areas.
|
 The
photomontage is of what appears to be a minor, matching the Emery
(1916j) illustration of the recticeps form from Egypt,
Kaseh Tourist Village, collected by Mostafa Sharaf, 7.viii.2007.
|
 The
photomontage is a minor from Spain, Sant Celoni, Barcelona,
collected by Xavier Espadaler, 27.x.2008.
|
The photomontage of what appears to be a good match for
the type form minor is collated from 
The
photomontage is a minor from Iran, Joghatay-Sabzevar-Khorasan,
collected by R Nafisi (24); 16.x.2012. 
The
photomontage is a dark form minor from Iran,
Sheshtamab-Sabzeva-Khorasan,
collected by R Nafisi (27); 24.iii.2013.