Camponotus textor

Camponotus textor
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Formicinae
Tribe:	Camponotini
Genus:	Camponotus
Species:	C. textor
Binomial name
Camponotus textor Forel, 1899 Specimen Labels

Camponotus textor is native to Central and South America. They are weaver ants, using their larvae to build silken nests by sewing tree leaves together.

Identification

Longino (2006) - Camponotus textor is a typical Myrmobrachys in the form of the propodeum and general habitus. Like Camponotus senex it is very setose, with abundant erect setae projecting from the sides of the head in face view and from the mesosomal and gastral dorsa in side view. Unlike in C. senex the gaster is covered with a dense yellow appressed pubescence that obscures the underlying cuticle and gives the ant a golden sheen. Forel described C. textor based on a Costa Rican collection by Tonduz. It was collected in a silk nest attached to leaves, and the entire nest, with queen, was sent to Forel. The description includes the dense yellow pubescence and abundant long erect pilosity, and I am confident of this determination. The presence of dense gastral pubescence is relatively common in Myrmobrachys. Similarly pubescent species in Costa Rica include Camponotus planatus and Camponotus brettesi. The former is bicolored, with red head and mesosoma and darker gaster. Minor workers of C. brettesi tend to have relatively shorter and whiter pubescence, lacking the golden sheen of C. textor. Camponotus textor is weakly polymorphic, whereas C. planatus and C. brettesi have more distinct major workers that are much larger than minor workers.

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 19.5166667° to 10.35°.

North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

• Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Neotropical Region: Costa Rica (type locality), Honduras, Panama.

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

Longino (2006) - Camponotus textor inhabits mature rainforest canopy, where it builds nests by sewing leaves together with larval silk (Forel 1899, 1905, Wheeler 1915, Schremmer 1979, Holldobler and Wilson 1983). In Costa Rica it is relatively uncommon. At La Selva Biological Station, in the Atlantic lowlands, there is a large foot bridge that crosses the Rio Puerto Viejo. On each side of the river the bridge goes through the crowns of canopy trees growing on the banks of the river. One of these is an Inga, and for a while it contained nests of C. textor. From the side of the bridge I could see two or three of the nests, each a cluster of leaves and silk about the size of a baseball. Workers and a dealate queen were obtained in a Project ALAS canopy fogging sample from Virola koschnyi (Myristicaceae). This was the only occurrence among 52 ALAS fogging samples. In addition, workers were obtained in a single ALAS Malaise trap, one of 16 traps run for a year of sampling.

There is a montane form of C. textor which differs from the lowland form. The gaster has dilute pubescence, like C. senex. It occurs at 500 m elevation on the Barva Transect, a continuously forested slope above La Selva Biological Station. I found a colony when I cut and lowered a large live branch from the crown of a Vochysia ferruginea tree. The branch contained two nests of silked-together leaves. The nests were relatively small, comprised of only two or three Vochysia leaves held together with silk sheets. The two forms of C. textor seem to be sharply parapatric. During Project ALAS sampling of the Barva transect, workers of typical C. textor were collected in a Malaise trap at a 300 m site but not at any of the higher sites. The montane form was collected only from the 500 m site. It is unknown whether this is intraspecific clinal variation or evidence of two species with a parapatric distribution.

Wheeler (1915) discussed the Camponotus species that build exposed nests of leaves sewn together with silk and use their larvae as a source of silk. He observed that these species tend to have very weak polymorphism. I also have noted the surprising lack of major workers in C. textor and the montane form. There is some variation in worker size, but no large major workers. Members of the subgenus Dendromyrmex exhibit no size variation at all. The workers of subgenus Dendromyrmex do not seem at all closely related to C. textor, suggesting that the construction of silk nests and the weak to absent polymorphism have evolved independently in two different lineages.

Association with Other Organisms

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• This species is a associate (details unknown) for the eurytomid wasp Camponotophilus delvarei (a associate (details unknown)) (Quevillon, 2018).
• This species is a host for the eulophid wasp Horismenus myrmecophagus (a parasitoid) (Quevillon, 2018) (multiple encounter modes; direct transmission; transmission outside nest).

Castes

Images from AntWeb

Lectotype of Camponotus textor. Worker (major/soldier). Specimen code casent0910718. Photographer Z. Lieberman, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by MHNG, Geneva, Switzerland.

Paralectotype of Camponotus textor. Worker. Specimen code casent0910719. Photographer Z. Lieberman, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by MHNG, Geneva, Switzerland.

Worker. Specimen code inbiocri001218776. Photographer Ryan Perry, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by INBio.

Worker. Specimen code inbiocri001280594. Photographer Ryan Perry, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by JTLC.

Nomenclature

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

• textor. Camponotus senex r. textor Forel, 1899c: 138 (w.q.) COSTA RICA.
  • Combination in C. (Myrmobrachys): Emery, 1925b: 164.
  • Subspecies of senex: Emery, 1920c: 38; Emery, 1925b: 164; Borgmeier, 1927c: 158; Borgmeier, 1929: 214; Kempf, 1972a: 54; Bolton, 1995b: 127.
  • Status as species: Longino, 2006b: 134.

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

Type Material

Longino (2006) - Syntype worker, queen: Costa Rica (Tonduz)

References

• Albuquerque, E., Prado, L., Andrade-Silva, J., Siqueira, E., Sampaio, K., Alves, D., Brandão, C., Andrade, P., Feitosa, R., Koch, E., Delabie, J., Fernandes, I., Baccaro, F., Souza, J., Almeida, R., Silva, R. 2021. Ants of the State of Pará, Brazil: a historical and comprehensive dataset of a key biodiversity hotspot in the Amazon Basin. Zootaxa 5001, 1–83 (doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5001.1.1).
• Fox, E.G.P., Solis, D.R., Lazoski, C., Mackay, W. 2017. Weaving through a cryptic species: Comparing the Neotropical ants Camponotus senex and Camponotus textor (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Micron 99: 56-66 (DOI 10.1016/j.micron.2017.03.016).
• Koch, E.B.de A., Marques, T.E.D., Mariano, C.S.F., Neto, E.A.S., Arnhold, A., Peronti, A.L.B.G., Delabie, J.H.C. 2020. Diversity and structure preferences for ant-hemipteran mutualisms in cocoa trees (Theobroma cacao L., Sterculiaceae). Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi - Ciências Naturais 15, 65–81 (doi:10.46357/bcnaturais.v15i1.251).
• Longino, J.T. 2006. New species and nomenclatural changes for the Costa Rican ant fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecologische Nachrichten. 8: 131–143.
• Rafiqi, A.M., Rajakumar, A., Abouheif, E. 2020. Origin and elaboration of a major evolutionary transition in individuality. Nature 585, 239–244. (doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2653-6).
• Ramalho, M.de O., Kim, Z., Wang, S., Moreau, C.S. 2021. Wolbachia Across Social Insects: Patterns and Implications. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 114, 206–218 (doi:10.1093/aesa/saaa053).
• Ramalho, M.O., Vieira, A.S., Pereira, M.C., Moreau, C.S., Bueno, O.C. 2018. Transovarian transmission of Blochmannia and Wolbachia endosymbionts in the Neotropical weaver ant Camponotus textor (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Current Microbiology 75(7): 866-873 (doi:10.1007/s00284-018-1459-3).
• Solis, D.R., Fox, E.G.P., Rossi, M.L. & Bueno, O.C. 2009. Description of the immatures of workers of the weaver ant, Camponotus textor (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Sociobiology. 54:541-559.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

• Adams B. J., S. A. Schnitzer, and S. P. Yanoviak. 2019. Connectivity explains local ant community structure in a Neotropical forest canopy: a large-scale experimental approach. Ecology 100(6): e02673.
• Dattilo W. et al. 2019. MEXICO ANTS: incidence and abundance along the Nearctic-Neotropical interface. Ecology https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2944
• De la Mora, A., J. A. Garcia-Ballinas, and S. M. Philpott. 2015. Local, landscape, and diversity drivers of predation services provided by ants in a coffee landscape in Chiapas, Mexico. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 201: 83-91.
• Emery C. 1920. Studi sui Camponotus. Bullettino della Società Entomologica Italiana 52: 3-48.
• Kempf, W.W. 1972. Catalago abreviado das formigas da regiao Neotropical (Hym. Formicidae) Studia Entomologica 15(1-4).
• Larsen, A., and S. M. Philpott. 2010. Twig-nesting ants: the hidden predators of the coffee berry borer in Chiapas, Mexico. Biotropica 42: 342-347.
• Longino J. T. 2006. New species and nomenclatural changes for the Costa Rican ant fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecologische Nachrichten 8: 131-143.
• Longino J. et al. ADMAC project. Accessed on March 24th 2017 at https://sites.google.com/site/admacsite/
• Nascimento Santos M., J. H. C. Delabie, and J. M. Queiroz. 2019. Biodiversity conservation in urban parks: a study of ground-dwelling ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Rio de Janeiro City. Urban Ecosystems https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-019-00872-8
• Philpott S. M., I. Perfecto, and J. Vandermeer. 2006. Effects of management intensity and season on arboreal ant diversity and abundance in coffee agroecosystems. 15: 139-155.
• Philpott, S.M. and P.F. Foster. 2005. Nest-site limitation in coffee agroecosytems: Artificial nests maintain diversity of arboreal ants. Ecological Applications 15(4):1478-1485
• Philpott, S.M., P. Bichier, R. Rice, and R. Greenberg. 2007. Field testing ecological and economic benefits of coffee certification programs. Conservation Biology 21: 975-985.