So, I caught a queen Pheidole of some sort at 7:30 pm tonight as I was setting up my telescope to let it cool down.
Temperature was about 75 degrees Farenheit, and humidity was about 40%.
She was crawling along on a wall nearby a pool. The area is suburban, with oak-juniper forest between the houses.
She is small -- 4 mm.
Her whole body is an orangy-red color. There is sparse pilosity across her body.
Her whole body is more flattened and held lower to the ground when she walks than I've seen with other queens of this genus. She is noticably wider than she is tall. Her postpetiole is larger than her petiole by a fair amount.
Also, on each mandible there are only 3 teeth: one at the tip, which has a notch next to it. The notch turns exits into another small tooth. The mandible is smooth until about 80% of the way to her head, at which point there is another tooth. She is extremely docile. I could pick up her test tube without making her move. When I turned the microscope light on her, she just sat there contently, not moving more than a mm or so over the course of taking pictures.
Here are some pictures. I'm sorry about the quality as they were taken with my phone, through my dissecting microscope, which was looking through her test tube.
Overall view:
Scale in mm:
You can see the mandibles and overall flatness:
More mandibles and flatness:
From her coloration and size, I have a feeling that she is the queen of a small, reddish Pheidole I saw at a bait station at my house last year. I could never get it ID'ed. The majors were 2-3 mm and about the same color as this queen. The minors were the same color. This species was quite passive to my presence, which would fit with the behavior of this queen. Here is a picture of that species:
I know Pheidole can be next to impossible to ID, especially without workers, so I really appreciate any help I can get.
Thanks!
