Minor workers are about 2.3 mm; majors about 3.8 mm.
Fine-art photographic collection
Pheidole flaveria
A colony that manufactures two radically different worker bodies from the same genome.
About this species
Pheidole flaveriaZhou & Zheng, 1999
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Pheidole flaveria is a Chinese big-headed ant described from Guangxi. Colonies include small workers and much larger-headed soldiers, with queens and brood completing a physically diverse society.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Hymenoptera · Formicidae · Pheidole
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
China, recorded from Guangxi, Henan, Hubei and ShaanxiBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
China, recorded from Guangxi, Henan, Hubei and Shaanxi
Soil and litter in warm-temperate to subtropical habitats.
Workers forage on the ground and recruit nestmates to food.
Small arthropods and sugary resources.
Colonial, with queen, major and minor workers.
What makes this species remarkable?
The original description measured minor workers at about 2.3 millimetres and majors at about 3.8 millimetres; the size difference is amplified by a soldier head expanded into an enormous muscle capsule.
Majors and minors share the same species and colony, yet larval nutrition and development route them into different anatomical castes — effectively producing two worker designs from one genetic blueprint.
The species was known initially from Guangxi, but later checklists recorded it across four Chinese provinces, revealing a much broader distribution than the small type series suggested.