Pheidole vestita ^HNS new species

Types Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard.

Etymology L vestita ^HNS, clothed, wearing garments, referring to the unusually dense pilosity of the major.

Diagnosis Distinguished from other members of the scrobifera ^HNS group by the following suite of character states.

Major: entire body covered by long, very dense, suberect to erect hairs; promesonotum smoothly semicircular in dorsal-oblique view; posterior two-thirds of dorsal head surface rugoreticulate; frontal lobes and all of promesonotum entirely smooth and shiny.

Minor: occiput narrowed, with nuchal collar; all of head smooth and shiny except for circular carinulae around antennal fossae; all of promesonotal border and all of waist smooth and shiny; propodeal spines short and erect.

Measurements (mm) Holotype major: HW 1.86, HL 2.22, SL 0.88, EL 0.22, PW 0.96.

Paratype minor: HW 0.60, HL 0.64, SL 0.70, EL 0.14, PW 0.38.

Color Major: posterior three-fourths of head capsule dark reddish brown, anterior one-fourth medium reddish brown; mesosoma and waist dark to medium reddish brown; gaster plain dark reddish brown; appendages light reddish brown.

Minor: posterior four-fifths of head capsule dark brown, anterior one-fifth light brown; mesosoma and waist light brown; gaster dark brown; appendages yellowish brown.

range Known only from the type locality.

Biology Nests in clayey soil of mature forest trail (E. O. Wilson); observed foraging at night on grassy section of trail (Longino 1997). The type colony was from a soil nest in the middle of a forest trail, surrounded by excavated earth.

Figure Upper: holotype, major. Lower: paratype, minor. COSTA RICA: La Selva Biological Station, near Puerto Viejo, Heredia (E. O. Wilson). Scale bars = 1 mm.