A New Species of Afrotropical Ant with Kiko Gómez

'When it comes to ants,' Dr. Kiko Gómez says, 'it’s important to know what you don’t know.' The ant genus Pheidole contains over 1,000 species, and is found across the world. But what does it mean to find a new species in this genus? In this episode, Kiko shares his experience collecting and identifying Pheidole ants in the Ivory Coast. He tells us what it’s like to visit the amazing Taï National Park, how myrmecologists differentiate between worker, soldier, and other ant designations, and what makes his group of ants unique from the rest.

Book mentioned: Journey to the Ants by Bert Hölldobler and E. O. Wilson. It can be found here. Kiko Gómez’s paper “Pheidole klaman sp. nov.: a new addition from Ivory Coast to the Afrotropical pulchella species group (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Myrmicinae)” is in the June 20th 2022 issue of Zookeys. It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1104.81562

New Species: Pheidole klaman
Episode image courtesy of Kiko Gomez Find Kiko on Instagram: @netodejulilla Virtual 3D data of the major worker holotype (CASENT0764691) and two minor worker paratypes (CASENT0764692 & CASENT0745509) can be found on Dryad (doi: 10.5061/dryad.mpg4f4r1k)