''Pheidole dodo'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Myrmicinae Myrmicinae is a subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily ...

. It is named after the

dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinction, extinct flightless bird that was endemism, endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest relative was the also-extinct and flightles ...

, an extinct bird of

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

Habitat and distribution

''Pheidole dodo'' is known from Mauritius only, where it was collected from the ground, inside rotten logs, under moss or from the

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall, or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that has fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituen ...

and in coastal scrub, closed vegetation, low closed forest, disturbed and undisturbed

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

, in elevations between 1 and 760 m.

Description

The minors are most similar to those of '' P. braueri'', differing from the latter by slightly smaller eyes and decumbent to subdecumbent versus mostly suberect scape pilosity in ''P. braueri''. The majors look like an odd hybrid of those of ''P. braueri'', '' P. jonas'', and '' P. decepticon'', with the head in full-face view somewhat resembling that of ''P. decepticon'', the

mesosoma The mesosoma is the middle part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the metasoma. It bears the legs, and, in the case of winged insects, the wings. Wasps, bees and a ...

in profile similar to ''P. jonas'' and the postpetiole shape closest to ''P. braueri''. This combination, however, makes this species unique and easily identifiable on the islands of the Malagasy region.

References

Insects described in 2013 Insects of Mauritius Hymenoptera of Africa Endemic fauna of Mauritius {{myrmicinae-stub