Genus DORYMYRMEX Forel

    Dorymyrmex flavus McCook
Figures 000-000

     Dorymyrmex pyramicus var. flavus McCook, 1879:186; o.
     Dorymyrmex pyramicus: Creighton, 1950:346-349 (in part).
     Dorymyrmex (Conomyrma) pyramicus: Gregg, 1963:432-434 (in part).
     Conomyrma insana: Snelling, 1973 (in part).
     Conomyrma flava: Johnson, 1989:187-191, 192.
     Dorymyrmex flavus: Snelling, 1995:5-7, 13.

     RANGE: Kansas, eastern Colorado, eastern New Mexico, south to Texas and western Louisiana; apparently adventive in California.

     DESERT RECORDS. Map 6. Riverside Co.: Mayflower Park, 350 ft. el., 5 mi NE Blythe, Riverside Co., 9 Aug. 1988 (G. C. Snelling; GCSC, LACM); same except 25 Sept. 1993 (RRS & G. C. Snelling; LACM).

     DISCUSSION: The only available samples of this species are from Mayflower Park near the city of Blythe. In the absence of any records of this species from most of New Mexico and the entire State of Arizona, it seems likely that this record represents an introduction. Since Blythe is on a primary truck and automobile route into California it is hardly surprising that such an introduction could occur.
     
As the specific name would imply, this is an entirely yellow species, thus easily separable from its two California congeners. It can only be confused with the yellow species of Myrmecocystus. The latter are nocturnal and, when crushed, do not have the characteristic pungent and disagreeable odor of Dorymyrmex.

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Date of this version 18, October 2003
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