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Genus Pogonomyrmex - Harvester Ants

Red ant, sandy river bed - Pogonomyrmex maricopa

ants in the trail - Pogonomyrmex barbatus

Ant IMG_7896 - Pogonomyrmex occidentalis

Pogonomyrmex californicus? - Pogonomyrmex californicus

California Ant ID - Pogonomyrmex rugosus - female

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)

No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)

Superfamily Formicoidea (Ants)

Family Formicidae (Ants)

Subfamily Myrmicinae

Tribe Pogonomyrmecini

Genus Pogonomyrmex (Harvester Ants)

Other Common Names

rough harvester ants

Explanation of Names

Pogonomyrmex Mayr 1868

'bearded ant' (refers to the basket-like hair structure or psammophore underneath head. NB: other genera, incl. Veromessor, Myrmecocystus, and Pheidole, have species with psammophores in our area.)

Numbers

27 spp. in our area, ~100 total(1)

Range

In our area, a mostly western US distribution, with one species east of the Mississippi River; P. occidentalis & P. salinus range into BC‒SK

Remarks

US species in this genus can be grouped into 4 main groups: the barbatus, occidentalis, and californicus complexes, and three small species in the Ephebomyrmex subgenus.(2)

barbatus complex (10 spp. in our area, 6 represented)

*P. anergismus

P. apache [clypeus excised]

P. barbatus

P. bicolor

P. bigbendensis

*P. colei

P. desertorum

P. rugosus

P. tenuispinus

*P. texanus

californicus complex (8 spp. in our area, 6 represented)

P. anzensis

P. badius [our only polymorphic species]

P. californicus black gaster morph

pure red morph

P. comanche

P. hoelldobleri

*P. magnacanthus

P. maricopa

*P. mohavensis

occidentalis complex (6 spp. in our area, 4 represented)

*P. brevispinosus

*P. montanus

P. occidentalis [offset basal mandibular tooth]

P. salinus [straight basal mandibular tooth]

P. subdentatus

P. subnitidus

subgenus Ephebomyrmex (3 spp. in our area)

P. huachucanus

P. imberbiculus

P. pima

Internet References

taxon page(1)

Works Cited

1.	AntWiki

2.	Cladistic Phylogeny of the North American Species Complexes of Pogonomyrmex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Stephen W. Taber. 1990. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, Volume 83, Pages 307–316.

Contributed by Tony DiTerlizzi on 22 June, 2005 - 11:03pm
Additional contributions by ceiseman, v belov, Steven Wang
Last updated 4 March, 2025 - 3:05pm

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