Camponotus capito

Camponotus capito
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Formicinae
Tribe:	Camponotini
Genus:	Camponotus
Species:	C. capito
Binomial name
	Camponotus capito; Mayr, 1876 Specimen Labels
Subspecies
	Camponotus capito ebeninithorax Forel, 1915;

Identification

Keys including this Species

Key to Australian Camponotus species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 22.5045° to -35.3°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Australasian Region: Australia (type locality).

Distribution based on AntMaps

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.

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.

Biology

Castes

Nomenclature

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

capito. Camponotus capito Mayr, 1876: 64 (s.w.) AUSTRALIA (Queensland).
- Forel, 1915b: 99 (w.); Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1970: 650 (l.).
- Combination in C. (Myrmophyma): Forel, 1912i: 91; Santschi, 1928e: 481.
- Junior synonym of cinereus: Santschi, 1919a: 330; Santschi, 1928e: 481.
- Status as species: Dalla Torre, 1893: 223; Emery, 1896d: 374 (in list); Forel, 1902h: 494; Forel, 1912b: 83; Forel, 1915b: 99; Emery, 1925b: 110; Taylor & Brown, 1985: 110; Taylor, 1987a: 11; Bolton, 1995b: 90; McArthur, 2007a: 316; Heterick, 2009: 65; McArthur, 2010: 40; McArthur, 2014: 164.
- Current subspecies: nominal plus ebeninithorax.

Type Material

Syntype, 1 worker, 3 queens, Peak Downs, Queensland, Australia, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna.

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 11-13mm. Ferruginous, legs generally ferruginous-testaceous, gaster black, mandibles chestnut; sparse upstanding pilosity, antennae and limbs with upstanding pilosity, dispersed and very fine, the sides of the thorax, metanotum (= propodeum) and coxa are densely pubescent; finely and superficially coriaceous and glossy, frons and vertex sparsely punctated on top, with the anterior half of the head opaque, finely and densely punctated with larger and dispersed pits, mandibles with coarse pits, opaque, with the spaces between the pits coriaceous, gaster sublaevi, with hair in the pits, transverse striations; clypeus is not keeled, moderately produced in front, anterior margin sub semicircular, emarginate and therefore bidentate; the head between the eyes is strongly convex, and depressed a little behind the eyes; thorax above the propodeum angle is convex, scutellum can be seen transversely, the basal part of the metanotum (= propodeum) is a little depressed; the node on the petiole is not high.

Peak Downs in Queensland. (Museum Godeffroy)

Forel,A. (1915):

Worker minor (not yet described) Length, 7.6-8.2mm Head is rectangular almost 1/4 longer than wide with compressed sides distinctly flattened back of head with straight posterior border. From the convex eyes which are positioned close to the posterior border of the head. to the back corners, goes a very distinct blunt edge which separates the back of the head from the flattened sides (similar to ephippium). The vertex is not at all swollen. Pronotum approximately as wide as the head and like the head is only slightly glossy finely reticulate and rather strongly pubescent (the major worker is glossy smooth and almost without pubescence). As with the large worker the color is red with a black gaster otherwise like the major worker only the pubescence is stronger all over.

The discovery of the minor and major together proves that a number of species which I had previously put in Myrmocameleus, I can now put into Myrmophyma. The same could happen for example with ephippium if one finds amongst them a major worker with a swollen vertex.

References

Bolton, B. 1995b. A new general catalogue of the ants of the world. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 504 pp. (page 90, catalogue)
Forel, A. 1912j. Formicides néotropiques. Part VI. 5me sous-famille Camponotinae Forel. Mém. Soc. Entomol. Belg. 20: 59-92 (page 91, combination in C. (Myrmophyma))
Forel, A. 1915b. Results of Dr. E. Mjöbergs Swedish Scientific Expeditions to Australia 1910-13. 2. Ameisen. Ark. Zool. 9(1 16: 1-119 (page 99, worker described)
Heterick, B.E. 2021. A guide to the ants of Western Australia. Part I: Systematics. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 86, 1-245 (doi:10.18195/issn.0313-122x.86.2021.001-245).
Heterick, B.E. 2022. A guide to the ants of Western Australia. Part II: Distribution and biology. Records of the Western Australian Museum, supplement 86: 247-510 (doi:10.18195/issn.0313-122x.86.2022.247-510).
Majer, J.D., Castalanelli, M.A., Ledger, J.L., Gunawardene, N.R., Heterick, B.E. 2018. Sequencing the ant fauna of a small island: Can metagenomic analysis enable faster identification for routine ant surveys? Sociobiology 65, 422-432 (doi:10.13102/sociobiology.v65i3.2885).
Mayr, G. 1876. Die australischen Formiciden. J. Mus. Godeffroy 12: 56-115 (page 64, soldier, worker described)
Santschi, F. 1919a. Cinq notes myrmécologiques. Bull. Soc. Vaudoise Sci. Nat. 52: 325-350 (page 330, Provisional junior synonym of cinereus)
Sparks, K. 2015. Australian Monomorium: Systematics and species delimitation with a focus of the M. rothsteini complex. Ph.D. thesis, University of Adelaide.
Taylor, R. W.; Brown, D. R. 1985. Formicoidea. Zool. Cat. Aust. 2:1- 149: 1-149, 30 (page 110, Retained as species)
Wheeler, G. C.; Wheeler, J. 1970b. Ant larvae of the subfamily Formicinae: second supplement. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 63: 648-656 (page 650, larva described)

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

Heterick B. E. 2013. A taxonomic overview and key to the ants of Barrow Island, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 83: 375-404.
Heterick B. E., B. Durrant, and N. R. Gunawardene. 2010. The ant fauna of the Pilbara Bioregion, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 78: 157-167.
Majer J. D., S. K. Callan, K. Edwards, N. R. Gunawardene, and C. K. Taylor. 2013. Baseline survey of the terrestrial invertebrate fauna of Barrow Island. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 83: 13-112.