Camponotus froggatti

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Camponotus froggatti
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Formicinae
Tribe: Camponotini
Genus: Camponotus
Species: C. froggatti
Binomial name
Camponotus froggatti
Forel, 1902

Camponotus froggatti casent0910381 p 1 high.jpg

Camponotus froggatti casent0910381 d 1 high.jpg

Specimen Labels

Identification

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: -19.01497° to -29.4068°.

   
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

Images from AntWeb

Camponotus froggatti casent0910382 d 1 high.jpgCamponotus froggatti casent0910382 h 1 high.jpgCamponotus froggatti casent0910382 p 1 high.jpgCamponotus froggatti casent0910382 l 1 high.jpg
Syntype of Camponotus froggattiWorker. Specimen code casent0910382. Photographer Z. Lieberman, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by MHNG, Geneva, Switzerland.

Nomenclature

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

  • froggatti. Camponotus froggatti Forel, 1902h: 504 (s.w.) AUSTRALIA (New South Wales).
    • Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1968: 218 (l.).
    • Combination in C. (Myrmosaga): Forel, 1912i: 92;
    • combination in C. (Myrmophyma): Emery, 1920b: 257; Santschi, 1928e: 482.
    • Status as species: Forel, 1915b: 106; Emery, 1925b: 111; Taylor & Brown, 1985: 114; Taylor, 1987a: 12; Bolton, 1995b: 100; McArthur, 2007a: 323; McArthur, 2014: 168.

Type Material

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

Description

Workers length 4.4-6mm

Worker major. Mandibles short, obtuse, armed with 5 teeth, punctate, finely shagreen, sub opaque, with some striations. The clypeus without a carina, median part much wider than long, the sides diverging a little, without anterior lobe, the anterior border tri dented. The median indentation is narrow and small. Frontal area distinct. Antennae insertions are very close to the posterior of the clypeus. Frontal carinae are sinuous, strongly diverging. The scapes pass the head by 1/6 of their length. The head is very convex, almost as wide as long, a little concave behind where it has its greatest width. very moderately narrowed at the front, sides quite convex, obtuse at the front, but not truncate. Thorax short; pronotum slightly imprinted at the front in the middle, with anterior angles rounded, but sub bordered, in other respects convex. Mesonotum a little sub bordered; the anterior border exceeds the level of the pronotum. The basal face of the metanotum (= propodeum) moderately narrow without a surface; in profile strongly concave in a saddle form towards the posterior third resembling C. quadrimaculatus and kelleri of Madigascar, but in the case of the latter the concavity is in the middle and wider. The declivity is short and abrupt. The node is very thick, as thick at the summit as at the base, with a summit which is very convex representing a border. Cylindrical tibias, without trace of barbs (except for those at the extremities). Glossy, weakly shagreen. Some large pits sparse on the clypeus and cheeks. Apart from that the punctation is sparse, fine and not obvious. Pilosity erect, yellow, very sparse on the body, none on the limbs. Pubescence very fine, very short very sparse. Black; coxa and femurs very pale yellow; tibias and base of the coxa and femurs brown. Mandibles, antennae and the anterior border of the head a yellowish brown. The borders of the gastric segments, yellow.

Worker minor. Head trapezoidal, strongly widened behind, a little longer than wide, sub pressed behind the eyes with a rather distinct margin (a little less than in the case of ephippium) from the eye to the occipital angle. The head, being widened behind, does not appear compressed but under the above mentioned edge , its posterior inferior lateral part is depressed which one can see by looking at it from underneath. Maxillary palps long, exceeding occiput by a little. The scapes surpass the head by 1/3 their length. The thorax is exactly like the major but in the minor the anterior impression of the pronotum becomes invisible. The clypeus is more convex than the major, sub careened, sub lobed (rounded lobe), scarcely indented in the middle of its anterior border. Front of head has almost no big pits; the mandibles, antennae and the anterior border of the head yellow red. In other respects the pilosity, pubescence and color and the remainder of the form is like the major.

Wollongbar, Richmond River, New South Wales. (Froggatt)

This species is quite particular. The head edged and sub depressed behind in the case of the minor worker relates it to ephippium while other characters make it closer to quadrimaculatus. But the mandibles with 5 teeth, the short and wide form of the clypeus and the insertions of the antennae give it a separate place.

References

  • Bolton, B. 1995b. A new general catalogue of the ants of the world. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 504 pp. (page 100, catalogue)
  • Emery, C. 1920b. Le genre Camponotus Mayr. Nouvel essai de la subdivision en sous-genres. Rev. Zool. Afr. (Bruss.) 8: 229-260 (page 257, combination in C. (Myrmophyma))
  • Forel, A. 1902j. Fourmis nouvelles d'Australie. Rev. Suisse Zool. 10: 405-548 (page 504, soldier, worker described)
  • Forel, A. 1912j. Formicides néotropiques. Part VI. 5me sous-famille Camponotinae Forel. Mém. Soc. Entomol. Belg. 20: 59-92 (page 92, combination in C. (Myrmosaga))
  • 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).
  • Santschi, F. 1928e. Nouvelles fourmis d'Australie. Bull. Soc. Vaudoise Sci. Nat. 56: 465-483 (page 482, see also)
  • Wheeler, G. C.; Wheeler, J. 1968a. The ant larvae of the subfamily Formicinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): supplement. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 61: 205-222 (page 218, larva described)