Search Path - How you got here.  Click on the path to backtrack.
  Number of segments between alitrunk and gaster  (2 segments (petiole and postpetiole) are reduced or isolated between the alitrunk and the gaster)     Eye size  (Eye composed of more than one lens)     Spines on alitrunk  (Alitrunk with spines)     Psammophore  (Ventral side of head and mandibles without basket-like series of hairs)     Postpetiole attachment  (Postpetiole attached to front surface of first gastral segment; petiole with a node and not dorsoventrally flattened)     Tubercles  (Dorsal surface of body not covered with tubercles)     Number of spines on alitrunk  (1-2 pairs of spines on alitrunk)     Antennal club  (Antenna with 3-segmented club)     Head size  (Large, broad-headed major workers contrast with much smaller minor workers with proportionately much narrower heads)     Cylindrical head  (Head not cylindrical)     Antennal scape  (Antennal scape of major worker not bent at base)     Occipital lobes  (Tops of the occipital lobes of major workers, and usually the fronts of their faces not sculptured)     Bluish reflection  (Head, alitrunk and gaster of minor worker without violet or bluish reflections)     Alitrunk opaque  (At least part of the promesonotum is shining in the minor worker, or, if opaque, promesonotum is longitudinally striate)

Identity - What this specimen is (based on the available information).
Family - Formicidae,  Subfamily - Myrmicinae,  Genus - Pheidole


Diagnostic - How to further narrow the specimen's identity.  Select the most appropriate option.
Feature to examine:  Mesonotum

  Option 1

Mesonotum of major worker depressed below adjacent portion of pronotum so that in profile it forms a distinct step

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Pheidole dentata body
(major worker)

  Option 2

Mesonotum not depressed; propodeum of minor worker with thick, short spines

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Pheidole bicarinata body
(major worker)
Pheidole bicarinata body
(minor worker)