Camponotus tristis

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Camponotus tristis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Formicinae
Tribe: Camponotini
Genus: Camponotus
Species: C. tristis
Binomial name
Camponotus tristis
Clark, 1930

Camponotus tristis casent0903539 p 1 high.jpg

Camponotus tristis casent0903539 d 1 high.jpg

Specimen Labels

Widespread in the SWBP, and in semi-arid areas is commonly found foraging on vegetation (Heterick 2009).

Photo Gallery

  • Camponotus tristis workers at nest entrance. South Australia. Photo by Mark Newton.

Identification

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: -28.69583° to -32.98028°.

 
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Australasian Region: Australia (type locality).

Distribution based on AntMaps

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Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Countries Occupied

Number of countries occupied by this species based on AntWiki Regional Taxon Lists. In general, fewer countries occupied indicates a narrower range, while more countries indicates a more widespread species.
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Estimated Abundance

Relative abundance based on number of AntMaps records per species (this species within the purple bar). Fewer records (to the left) indicates a less abundant/encountered species while more records (to the right) indicates more abundant/encountered species.
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Biology

Castes

Nomenclature

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

  • tristis. Camponotus (Myrmophyma) tristis Clark, 1930a: 124, fig. 1 (nos. 11,12) (s.w.) AUSTRALIA (Western Australia).
    • Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1974a: 60 (l.).
    • Status as species: Taylor & Brown, 1985: 121; Taylor, 1987a: 15; Bolton, 1995b: 128; McArthur, 2007a: 338; Heterick, 2009: 68; McArthur, 2010: 62; McArthur, 2014: 138.

Type Material

  • Camponotus (Myrmophyma) tristis Clark, 1930: Syntype, 1 worker, Eradu, Western Australia, Australia, Australian Museum.
  • Camponotus (Myrmophyma) tristis Clark, 1930: Syntype, 2 workers, Eradu, Western Australia, Australia, The Natural History Museum.
  • Camponotus (Myrmophyma) tristis Clark, 1930: Syntype, 3 workers, Eradu, Western Australia, Australia, Museum of Comparative Zoology.
  • Camponotus (Myrmophyma) tristis Clark, 1930: Syntype, 1 worker, Eradu, Western Australia, Australia, Museum Victoria, Melbourne.

Unless otherwise noted the text for the remainder of this section is reported from the publication that includes the original description.

Description

Worker major.-Length, 8-9 mm. Black. Legs brownish black. Apical segments of the gaster very narrowly edged with yellow. Opaque. Very finely and densely reticulate. Mandibles coarsely striate-punctate. Hair yellowish, erect, very sparse throughout. Pubescence yellow, fine and adpressed, very sparse throughout. Head broader than long, broadest at the eyes, the occipital border concave, the sides strongly convex, the posterior angles rounded. Frontal carinae diverging strongly outward behind, with a sharp longitudinal groove between them. Clypeus broad, subcarinate, produced and feebly convex in front; there is a deep depression on each side in front. Eyes large and flat, placed at the posterior third of the sides. The anterior ocellus represented by a large deep puncture, the posterior pair by very feebly punctures. Scapes extending beyond the occipital border by twice their thickness; second and third segments of the funiculus of equal length, one third shorter than the first. Mandibles large, triangular, armed with five or six strong sharp teeth. Thorax one and a half times longer than broad. Pronotum twice as broad as long, strongly convex in front and one the sides, the anterior border margined and slightly raised in front, submarginate on the sides. Mesonotum fully one third broader than long, convex above. Epinotum as long as broad in front, wedge shaped, the posterior ending in a sharp point; in profile the declivity twice as long as the dorsum, straight and vertical, rounded into the dorsum. Node scale-like, the top edge sharp, convex laterally; in profile the anterior face convex, the posterior straight. Gaster longer than broad. Legs robust.

Worker minor.-Length, 5-6 mm. Color, sculpture and pilosity similar to the worker. Head as long as broad, the occipital border straight, the sides convex. scapes passing the occipital border by almost half their length. Thorax similar to that of the major, but much more slender. The declivity three times as long as the dorsum of the epinotum. Node a little more slender, the top edge, laterally, bluntly rounded. The rest as in the worker major.

Habitat.-Western Australia: Eradu (J. Clark). Apparently near C. (M.) evae Forel from Queensland.

References