Cyphomyrmex flavidus Pergande

Snelling, R. R. & Longino, J. T., 1992, Revisionary notes on the fungus-growing ants of the genus Cyphomyrmex, rimosus-group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Attini)., Insects of Panama and Mesoamerica: selected studies., Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 479-494 : 485

Cyphomyrmex flavidus Pergande

(Figs 30.23, 30.31)

Cyphomyrmex flavidus Pergande , 1896: 895; [[worker]]

Cyphomyrmex rimosus dentatus Forel , 1901: 124-5; [[worker]]. NEW SYNONYMY.

Cyphomyrmex rimosus dentatus : Wheeler, 1907: 722-3; [[worker]], [[queen]]

Cyphomyrmex flavidus : Wheeler, 1907: 726-7; 9. Kempf, 1966:172.

Cyphomyrmex dentatus : Kempf, 1966:164, 184-6; Figs 8, 21, 31,46; [[worker]], [[queen]]

Pergande (1896) described C. flavidus from seven worker specimens collected by Eisen and Vaslit at Santiago Ixtcuintla, near Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico. He compared this new species with C. kirbyi Mayr and C. morschi Emery . Three of the original seven cotypes are in the USNM; the remaining four have not been accounted for. Wheeler (1907) received one from Pergande, which may be in the AMNH; it was not located at MCZ in October, 1983.

Forel's (1901) C. rimosus dentatus was also described from Mexican specimens, collected by Wheeler at Cuernavaca, Morelos. This form was compared only with C. rimosus ; several cotypes are in the MCZ collections.

When Wheeler,1907: treated the North American fungusgrowing ants, he had available to him cotypes of both of these names. It is curious that he failed to recognize their co-identitv. He redescribed C. flavidus from the cotype, compared it with C. wheeleri , and asserted it to be '. .. intermediate in several respects between wheeleri and rimosus ...'

It may be that Wheeler's comparison of C. flavidus with C. wheeleri led Kempf (1966) to conclude that C. flavidus is 'rather close to wheeleri , with the same reticulate-punctate integument'. This, in fact is not true and in particular, the surface of the antennal scrobe is opaque and microgranulose, not at all shiny and reticulate as in C. wheeleri . Also, unlike C. wheeleri , the preocular carina is curved mesally in front of the eye. These two features, plus the absence of the mid-pronotal tubercles and the dilated and ventrally carinate metafemur, would place C. flavidus in the dentatus subgroup of the rimosus group.

In Kempf s (1966) key to the species of the rimosus group, the cotypes of C. flavidus run directly and unequivocally to C. dentatus . They match the figures and description supplied by Kempf, and agree with the cotypes of C. rimosus dentatus in the MCZ collection. There is no doubt that the two are conspecific.

Of the three cotypes of C. flavidus from the US N M, one bears a label, in Pergande's handwriting: ' Cyphomyromex flavidus ( n. sp.) Type [lower left] and Perg. [lower right]'. This specimen has been marked Lectotype. The two remaining specimens are paralectotypes; one has been returned to the USNM and one is in the LACM.

In addition to specimens from Cuernavaca and Santiago Ixtcuintla. We have seen the following additional records. mexico: Cocula, Jalisco, Nov. 1923 (W.M. Mann; USNM); Estacion Biologia 'Chamela', Jalisco, 18 June 1984 (D. H. Feener; LACM); 75 km S. Culiacan, Sinaloa, 28 Aug. 1959 (L. A. Stange and A. S. Menke; LACM); Alamos, Sonora, 13 July 1976 (A. Mintzer; LACM). united states: Arizona, Tempe, Maricopa Co., 11 Nov. 1932 (Murphree; USNM:; Headquarters, 1600 ft elev., Organpipe Cactus National Monument, Pima Co., 1 Nov. 1952 (W.S. Creighton; LACM, Bloxton, Santa Cruz Co., 23 Sept. 1923 (W. M. Mann; USNM California: Indian Pass Rd., 500 ft elev., 7 mile E. Ogilbv Rd., Imperial Co., 7 May 1978 (R. R. Snelling and C. D. George. RRS No. 78-44; LACM), from midden of dolichoderine ant. Forelius foetidus (Buckley), on hillside cactus scrub.