Pheidole midas ^HNS new species

Types Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard.

Etymology Gr Midas, mythical king whose touch turned everything to gold; with reference to the color of the workers.

Diagnosis A small yellow member of the fallax ^HNS group characterized by the following combination of traits. Major: head heart-shaped; pilosity over all of body, and especially clypeus, mesosoma, waist, and gaster, very long, dense, and erect to suberect; a large-celled patch of rugoreticulum present to the side and behind each antennal fossa; carinulae on head and body almost entirely limited to the anterior half of the head, with most of the frontal lobes bare.

Minor: occiput broad, lacking nuchal collar; pilosity very long and mostly erect to suberect; only carinulae present are the circular ones around the antennal fossae, and foveolation is limited to the meso- and metathorax and propodeum, with the rest of the body smooth and shiny.

Similar to aenescens ^HNS, alienata ^HNS, bergi ^HNS, chrysops ^HNS, cordiceps ^HNS, and nesiota ^HNS, as described and illustrated. Measurements (mm) Holotype major: HW 0.92, HL 0.88, SL 0.74, EL 0.14, PW 0.46. Paratype minor: HW 0.50, HL 0.62, SL 0.70, EL 0.10, PW 0.34. Color Major and minor: concolorous medium yellow.

Range Known from the type locality (Trinidad) as well as series from Panama, Colombia, Brazil (Para), Peru, and Ecuador.

Biology Stefan Cover collected the type colony from a nest in a rotting stick on the floor of montane rainforest.

Figure Upper: holotype, major. Lower: paratype, minor. TRINIDAD: Aripo Ridge, Arima Valley, 550-650 m (Stefan Cover and Mark W. Moffett). Scale bars = 1 mm.