Camponotus suffusus

Camponotus suffusus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Formicinae
Tribe:	Camponotini
Genus:	Camponotus
Species:	C. suffusus
Binomial name
Camponotus suffusus (Smith, F., 1858) Specimen labels
Subspecies
Camponotus suffusus bendigensis Forel, 1902
Synonyms
Camponotus schencki Mayr, 1862

Photo Gallery

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  Camponotus suffusus worker guarding her nest entrance. Merimbula, New South Wales (photo by Steve Shattuck).

Identification

Keys including this Species

• Key to Australian Camponotus species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: -25.91666667° to -37.283°.

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

Flight Period

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Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

Source: antkeeping.info.

• Check details at Worldwide Ant Nuptial Flights Data, AntNupTracker and AntKeeping.

 Explore: Show all Flight Month data or Search these data. See also a list of all data tables or learn how data is managed.

Castes

Images from AntWeb

Worker. Specimen code casent0172143. Photographer April Nobile, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences.	Owned by ANIC, Canberra, Australia.

Nomenclature

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

• suffusus. Formica suffusa Smith, F. 1858b: 38 (q.) AUSTRALIA (no state data).
  • Type-material: holotype (?) queen.
  • [Note: no indication of number of specimens is given.]
  • Type-locality: Australia: (no further data).
  • Type-depository: BMNH.
  • Forel, 1915b: 105 (m.); Wheeler, G.C. & Wheeler, J. 1968: 219 (l.).
  • Combination in Camponotus: Roger, 1863b: 4;
  • combination in C. (Myrmosphincta): Forel, 1912i: 92;
  • combination in C. (Myrmosaulus): Emery, 1925b: 114.
  • Status as species: Mayr, 1863: 421; Roger, 1863b: 4; Mayr, 1886c: 355; Dalla Torre, 1893: 254; Emery, 1896d: 373 (in list); Forel, 1907a: 34; Forel, 1913g: 193; Forel, 1915b: 105; Emery, 1925b: 114; Clark, 1929: 123; Taylor & Brown, 1985: 120; Taylor, 1987a: 15; Bolton, 1995b: 125; McArthur, 2007a: 320; McArthur, 2014: 174.
  • Senior synonym of schencki: Dalla Torre, 1893: 254; Emery, 1896d: 373; Emery, 1925b: 114; Taylor & Brown, 1985: 120; Taylor, 1987a: 15; Bolton, 1995b: 125; McArthur, 2007a: 295.
  • Distribution: Australia.
  • Current subspecies: nominal plus bendigensis.
• schencki. Camponotus schencki Mayr, 1862: 674 (w.) AUSTRALIA (no state data).
  • Type-material: holotype worker.
  • Type-locality: Australia (“New Holland”): (no further data) (received from Schenck).
  • Type-depository: NHMW (apparently lost; according to Clark, 1930c: 17, “this species cannot be traced”).
  • [Misspelled as schenkii by Roger, 1863b: 4.]
  • Status as species: Mayr, 1863: 401; Roger, 1863b: 4; Mayr, 1876: 58 (in key); Forel, 1879a: 92; Kirby, W.F. 1896: 203.
  • Junior synonym of suffusus: Dalla Torre, 1893: 254; Emery, 1896d: 373; Emery, 1925b: 114; Taylor & Brown, 1985: 120; Taylor, 1987a: 15; Bolton, 1995b: 122; McArthur, 2007a: 295.

Type Material

• Camponotus schencki Mayr, 1862: Syntype, worker(s), queen(s), Australia (as New Holland), Australia.
• Formica piliventris Smith, 1858: Syntype, worker(s), South Australia, Australia, The Natural History Museum.
• Formica suffusa Smith, 1858: Holotype, queen, Australia, Australia, The Natural History Museum.

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

Description

Female. Length 7 lines (= 14 mm). Black: the head obscurely ferruginous, the face darkest, then antennae black; the thorax with the sides with ferruginous stains above, the scutellum and two longitudinal stripes on the mesothorax, ferruginous; the legs ferruginous; wings fusco-hyline, the nervures light brown, with a stain running along their course. Abdomen ovate, thinly clothed with pale golden golden pubescence.

Hab. Australia.

From the close resemblance between this species and F. piliventris, it is probably that this is the female of that insect.

Camponotus shencki Mayr, G.L. (1862)

Worker length 8 mm. Reddish brown, almost black, legs brownish red. Upstanding hair covering on whole body, also on legs, yellowish white, not especially long, flat lying pubescence sparse, more ample on the gaster where it is bronze colored. Mandibles with 5-6 teeth spacious, in rows, coarsely punctate. The head is dull with plentiful fine thimble like punctations. Clypeus weakly keeled, somewhat stretched out in front, but with curved sides. Sculpture of the thorax similar to the head, but somewhat coarse, no shine, above between the meso and metanotum impressed, from the anterior end of the thorax to this depression curved, the metanotum humped, the horizontal from one side to the other domed base surface is almost double as long as the steep sloping surface, which with the first forms a blunt angle which is very strongly rounded. The node is thick, egg shaped, whose sculpture as on the head and thorax is weak, some what inclined to the front, front and back convex. Gaster is thickly and finely wrinkled punctate.

I acquired this specimen from New Holland. Prof. Schenck.

References

• Dalla Torre, K. W. von. 1893. Catalogus Hymenopterorum hucusque descriptorum systematicus et synonymicus. Vol. 7. Formicidae (Heterogyna). Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 289 pp. (page 254, Senior synonym of schencki)
• Emery, C. 1896j. Saggio di un catalogo sistematico dei generi Camponotus, Polyrhachis e affini. Mem. R. Accad. Sci. Ist. Bologna (5)5:363-382 (page 373, Senior synonym of schencki)
• Emery, C. 1925d. Hymenoptera. Fam. Formicidae. Subfam. Formicinae. Genera Insectorum 183: 1-302 (page 114, Combination in C. (Myrmosaulus))
• Forel, A. 1912j. Formicides néotropiques. Part VI. 5me sous-famille Camponotinae Forel. Mém. Soc. Entomol. Belg. 20: 59-92 (page 92, Combination in C. (Myrmosphincta))
• 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 105, male described)
• Mayr, G. 1886c. Notizen über die Formiciden-Sammlung des British Museum in London. Verh. K-K. Zool.-Bot. Ges. Wien 36: 353-368 (page 355, Senior synonym of piliventris)
• Roger, J. 1863b. Verzeichniss der Formiciden-Gattungen und Arten. Berl. Entomol. Z. 7(B Beilage: 1-65 (page 4, Combination in Camponotus)
• Smith, F. 1858b. Catalogue of hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part VI. Formicidae. London: British Museum, 216 pp. (page 38, queen described)
• Wheeler, G. C.; Wheeler, J. 1968a. The ant larvae of the subfamily Formicinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): supplement. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 61: 205-222 (page 219, larva described)

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

• Vanderwoude C., A. N. Andersen, and A. P. N. House. 1997. Community organisation, biogeography and seasonality of ants in a open forest of south-eastern Queensland. Australian Journal of Zoology 45: 523-537.