Pheidole boltoni was first collected in 1979 by Phil Ward in Monteverde cloud forest. He collected a nest series (Ward #3450) in a rotten log. A specimen from this collection is the holotype of Pheidole humida Wilson 2003. In 1986 I collected three nest series (Longino #1329, #1330, #1336) at 1850m elevation on the Volcan Barva transect in Braulio Carrillo National Park. All three nests were under epiphyte mats in treefalls and branchfalls. One nest was observed with definite seed caches (perhaps melastome seeds). I used the morphospecies code name JTL-027 for this species, and a specimen from one of these collections is the holotye of P. boltoni Wilson 2003. I recently collected the species again during the Project ALAS expedition to the 2000m Vara Blanca site along the Volcan Barva transect. The site is cloud forest, with heavy epiphyte loads on all the larger trees. Nests of Pheidole boltoni were found beneath epiphytes in a fresh treefall in mature forest.
Judging from images of the P. humida holotype, P. humida and P. boltoni are synonyms.
It is notable that Pheidole boltoni has not been collected in Monteverde since Ward's original collection, in spite of abundant collecting in the area by Longino and Cover. Perhaps climate change has driven it out of Monteverde, along with the golden toads.
Costa Rica: Volcan Barva, Monteverde.
Taxonomic history
Senior synonym of Pheidole humida: Longino, 2009 PDF: 17.
