Camponotus semipunctata

Camponotus semipunctata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Formicinae
Tribe:	Camponotini
Genus:	Camponotus
Species:	C. semipunctata
Binomial name
	Camponotus semipunctata; Kirby, W., 1837

This taxon is considered to be unidentifiable and its identity is uncertain.

Identification

Distribution

Distribution based on type material

United States (type locality).

Distribution based on AntMaps

Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Biology

Castes

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

semipunctata. Formica semipunctata Kirby, W. 1837: 262 (q.) U.S.A. (New York, “taken in the Journey from New York to Cumberland-house”).
- Combination in Camponotus: Roger, 1863b: 43.
- Status as species: Mayr, 1863: 401.
- As unavailable (infrasubspecific) name: Forel, 1879a: 56; Emery, 1896d: 372 (in list); Wheeler, W.M. 1910g: 571.
- Subspecies of pennsylvanicus: Dalla Torre, 1893: 247.
- Junior synonym of pennsylvanicus: Mayr, 1886d: 420; Emery, 1925b: 73; Bolton, 1995b: 117 (error).
- Junior synonym of herculeanus: Cresson, 1887: 257; Creighton, 1950a: 367.
- Synonym of whymperi: Wheeler, W.M. 1910d: 330.
- [Note: Wheeler, W.M. 1910d: 330, gives whymperi as senior synonym, but semipunctata has priority. Mackay, 2019: 213, gives semipunctata as a possible synonym of herculeanus (following Creighton, 1950a: 367), but Mackay, 2019: 293, also includes semipunctata as a junior synonym of pennsylvanicus.]
- Unidentifiable taxon; incertae sedis in Formicinae: Smith, M.R. 1958c: 162; Smith, D.R. 1979: 1467;
- unidentifiable taxon; incertae sedis in Camponotus: Bolton, 1995b: 123.

Type Material

Several taken in the Journey from New York to Cumberland-house.

Taxonomic Notes

Roger (1863) and Mayr (1863) treated this species as belonging to Camponotus. Forel (1879) associated it with C. pennsylvanicus (as C. herculeanus pennsylvanicus semipunctatus, an unavailable infrasubspecific name), as did Dalla Torre (1893) (as C. pennsylvanicus semipunctatus). Mayr (1886) considered it a junior synonym of C. herculeanus pennsylvanicus while Cresson (1887) and Creighton (1950) placed it as a junior synonym of C. herculeanus (although Creighton (1950) was uncertain of this treatment). Smith (1979) and Bolton (1995) considered this species to be unidentifiable and treated it as either incertae sedis in Formicinae or in Camponotus. None of these authors provided detailed discussions to support their treatments.

Description

F. (semipunctata) nigra, glabra; abdomine pubescente, punctato; segmentis apice membranaceis rufescentibus, intermediis basi lavibus.

Semipunctured Formica, black, naked; abdomen downy, punctured; segments membranous at the apex and reddish ; the intermediate ones impunctured at the base.

Length of the body 7 3/4 lines.

Body black, glossy. Head something wider than the trunk, subtriangular antenna piceous with the scape black; wings cast in all the specimens; scale vertical between the trunk and abdomen, sloping to a thin edge upwards, where it is very slightly emarginate: abdomen oblong, subcylindrical, minutely punctured with the punctures piliforous; hairs decumbent with those of the margin of the segments and the anus, longer; margin of both abdominal and ventral segments membranous, membrane reddish; base of the three intermediate segments not punctured.

This species a good deal resembles the Formica herculanea of Linne (F. ligniperda Latr.) but it is proportionally more narrow, and entirely black save the legs and upper portion of the antenna. I at first took it for a variety of F. pubescens of Latreilie, but in his description of that species, he makes no mention of the punctures of the abdomen, nor of the rufescent membranous margin of the abdominal segments, circumstances also which distinguish it from F. pennsylvanica of De Geer, and which, from the figure of that author, is evidently a much smaller insect.

References