Camponotus albosparsus

Camponotus albosparsus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Formicinae
Tribe:	Camponotini
Genus:	Camponotus
Species:	C. albosparsus
Binomial name
Camponotus albosparsus Bingham, 1903 Specimen Labels

Common Name
Aka-yotsuboshi-oo-ari
Language:	Japanese

This species nests in the soil and under stone of open forest margins and grasslands. Foraging workers are found on the ground (Terayama 1999).

Identification

Terayama (1999) - Total length of workers around 4-7 mm. Head dark to blackish brown; mesosoma, petiole and legs brown; gaster black, 1st and 2nd gastral tergites each with a pair of yellow spots (often merging on the 1st tergite). Anterior margin of clypeus straight. Mandible with 6 teeth. Scape short: 1.2-1.3 times the head width in minor workers, and just exceeding the posterior border of head in majors. Petiole relatively high, with an inverted V-shaped scale in profile. Head and mesosoma with relatively abundant erect hairs.

Keys including this Species

• Key to Camponotus of Japan
• Key to Camponotus of India

Distribution

Terayama (1999) - Taiwan, through southern China, Hong Kong, to India.

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 22.157° to 22.157°.

North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

• Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Indo-Australian Region: Singapore.
Oriental Region: India (type locality).
Palaearctic Region: China, Japan.

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.

Castes

Worker

Images from AntWeb

Syntype of Camponotus albosparsus. Worker. Specimen code casent0910137. 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.

• albosparsus. Camponotus taylori var. albosparsus Bingham, 1903: 354.
  • [First available use of Camponotus maculatus r. taylori var. albosparsus Forel, 1894c: 397 (s.w.) INDIA (no state data, “Himalaya”); unavailable (infrasubspecific) name.]
  • Type-material: syntype major and minor workers (numbers not stated).
  • Type-locality: India: Himalaya (Smythies).
  • Type-depository: MHNG.
  • [Misspelled as albosparatus by Terayama, 2009: 217 (in key).]
  • Combination in C. (Tanaemyrmex): Emery, 1925b: 93.
  • As unavailable (infrasubspecific) name: Emery, 1896d: 370 (in list); Forel, 1904c: 29.
  • Subspecies of taylori: Wheeler, W.M. 1913e: 237.
  • Subspecies of barbatus: Forel, 1906b: 84; Forel, 1912a: 75; Forel, 1913f: 200; Wheeler, W.M. 1921c: 544; Emery, 1925b: 93; Wheeler, W.M. 1927d: 9; Wheeler, W.M. 1928c: 32; Wheeler, W.M. 1929f: 9; Wheeler, W.M. 1929g: 62; Wheeler, W.M. 1930h: 75; Santschi, 1937h: 379; Menozzi, 1939a: 318 (in key); Teranishi, 1940: 60; Chapman & Capco, 1951: 243.
  • Status as species: Wang, C., Xiao & Wu, 1989a: 223 (in key); Wang, C., Xiao & Wu, 1989b: 327; Wu, J. & Wang, 1992: 1315; Wang, C. & Wu, 1994: 30 (in key); Wu, J. & Wang, 1995: 178; Bolton, 1995b: 85; Terayama, 1999b: 31 (redescription); Zhou, 2001b: 205; Zhang, W. & Zheng, 2002: 218; Imai, et al. 2003: 38; Lin & Wu, 2003: 60; Karmaly & Narendran, 2006: 37; Terayama, 2009: 216; Ran & Zhou, 2011: 66; Guénard & Dunn, 2012: 27; Bharti, Guénard, et al. 2016: 23; Wang, W.Y., Soh, et al. 2022: 40.
  • Material of the unavailable name formosae referred here by Lin & Wu, 2003: 60; Terayama, 2009: 216.
  • Distribution: China, India, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan.

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

Determination Clarifications

Terayama (1999) - Camponotus sp. [Aka-yotsuboshi-oo-ari in Japanese] in Terayama et al. (1991) is conspecific with C. albosparsus.

References

• Bingham, C. T. 1903. The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Hymenoptera, Vol. II. Ants and Cuckoo-wasps. London: Taylor and Francis, 506 pp. (page 354, soldier, worker described)
• Bolton, B. 1995b. A new general catalogue of the ants of the world. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 504 pp. (page 85, catalogue)
• Dhadwal, T., Bharti, H. 2023. Two new species of the genus Camponotus Mayr, 1861 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) with five new records from India. European Journal of Taxonomy 901, 1-51 (doi:10.5852/ejt.2023.901.2317).
• Emery, C. 1925d. Hymenoptera. Fam. Formicidae. Subfam. Formicinae. Genera Insectorum 183: 1-302 (page 93, combination in C. (Tanaemyrmex))
• Forel, A. 1894c. Les Formicides de l'Empire des Indes et de Ceylan. Part IV. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 8: 396-420 (page 397, First available use of Camponotus maculatus r. taylori var. albosparsus; unavailable name.)
• Forel, A. 1906b. Les fourmis de l'Himalaya. Bull. Soc. Vaudoise Sci. Nat. 42: 79-94 (page 84, race/subspecies of barbatus)
• Forel, A. 1912b. H. Sauter's Formosa-Ausbeute. Formicidae (Hym.) (Schluss). Entomol. Mitt. 1: 67-81 (page 75, race/subspecies of barbatus)
• Imai, H.T., Kihara, A., Kondoh, M., Kubota, M., Kuribayashi, S., Ogata, K., Onoyama, K., Taylor, R.W., Terayama, M., Yoshimura, M., Ugawa, Y. 2003. Ants of Japan. 224 pp, Gakken, Japan.
• Liu, C., Fischer, G., Hita Garcia, F., Yamane, S., Liu, Q., Peng, Y.Q., Economo, E.P., Guénard, B., Pierce, N.E. 2020. Ants of the Hengduan Mountains: a new altitudinal survey and updated checklist for Yunnan Province highlight an understudied insect biodiversity hotspot. ZooKeys 978, 1–171 (doi:10.3897/zookeys.978.55767).
• Santschi, F. 1937h. Fourmis du Japon et de Formose. Bull. Ann. Soc. Entomol. Belg. 77: 361-388 (page 379, race/subspecies of barbatus)
• Wang, C.; Xiao, G.; Wu, J. 1989b. Taxonomic studies on the genus Camponotus Mayr in China (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). [concl.]. For. Res. 2: 321-328 (page 327, raised to species)
• Wheeler, W. M. 1913f. Zoological results of the Abor Expedition, 1911-1912, XVII. Hymenoptera, II: Ants (Formicidae). Rec. Indian Mus. 8: 233-237 (page 237, race/subspecies of taylori)
• Wheeler, W. M. 1921c. Chinese ants. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 64: 529-547 (page 544, race/subspecies of barbatus)
• Wu, J. & Wang, C. 1992. Formicidae (pp. 1301-1320). In Peng, J. et al. Iconography of Forest Insects in Hunan, China. Forest Bureau of Hunan Province: 1473 pp. Hunan Scientific and Technical Publishing House.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

• Chapman, J. W., and Capco, S. R. 1951. Check list of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Asia. Monogr. Inst. Sci. Technol. Manila 1: 1-327
• Chen Z. L., S. Y. Zhou, D. D. Ye, Y. Chen, and C. W. Lu. 2013. Moleular phylogeny of the ant subfamily Formicinae (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from China based on Mitochondrial genes. Sociobiology 60(2): 135-144.
• Forel A. 1913. H. Sauter's Formosa-Ausbeute: Formicidae II. Arch. Naturgesch. (A)79(6): 183-202
• Guénard B., and R. R. Dunn. 2012. A checklist of the ants of China. Zootaxa 3558: 1-77.
• Li Z.h. 2006. List of Chinese Insects. Volume 4. Sun Yat-sen University Press
• Lu Z., and Y. Chen. 2016. Effects of habitat on ant functional groups: a case study of Luchun County, Yunnan Province, China. Chinese Journal of Eco-Agriculture 24(5): 801-810.
• Ran H., and S. Y. Zhou. 2011. Checklist of Chinese Ants: the Formicomorph Subfamilies (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) (I). Journal of Guangxi Normal University: Natural Science Edition. 29(3): 65-73.
• Santschi F. 1937. Fourmis du Japon et de Formose. Bulletin et Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique. 77: 361-388.
• Shuang Zhao. 2006. Ant of Guangdong Province (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): A taxonomic study of the ants of Guangdong (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Master's thesis in Agriculture Insects and Pest Control. Supervisor Fenglong Jia. 115 pages.
• Song Y., Z. Xu, C. Li, N. Zhang, L. Zhang, H. Jiang, and F. Mo. 2013. An Analysis on the Ant Fauna of the Nangun river Nature Reserve in Yunnan, China. Forest Research 26(6): 773-780.
• Terayama M. 2009. A synopsis of the family Formicidae of Taiwan (Insecta: Hymenoptera). Research Bulletin of Kanto Gakuen University. Liberal Arts 17:81-266.
• Terayama M., S. Kubota, and K. Eguchi. 2014. Encyclopedia of Japanese ants. Asakura Shoten: Tokyo, 278 pp.
• Terayama, M. 1999. The ant genus Camponotus Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Japan. Memoirs of the Myrmecological Society of Japan 1:25-48.
• Terayama, M. 2009. A synopsis of the family Formicidae of Taiwan (Insecta; Hymenoptera). The Research Bulletin of Kanto Gakuen University 17: 81-266.
• Wang C., Xiao G. and Wu J. 1989. Taxonomic studies on the genus Camponotus in China (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) (conclusion). Forest Research 2: 221-228
• Wang W. R., S. Q. Zhang, and Z. H. Xu. 2012. A faunistic and taxonomic study of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Shenzhen Municipality. Journal of Southwest Forestry University 32(1): 64-73.
• Wheeler W. M. 1913. Zoological results of the Abor Expedition, 1911-1912, XVII. Hymenoptera, II: Ants (Formicidae). Records of the Indian Museum 8: 233-237.
• Wheeler W. M. 1921. Chinese ants. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 64: 529-547.
• Wheeler W. M. 1928. Ants collected by Professor F. Silvestri in China. Bollettino del Laboratorio di Zoologia Generale e Agraria della Reale Scuola Superiore d'Agricoltura. Portici 22: 3-38.
• Wheeler W. M. 1929. Ants collected by Professor F. Silvestri in Formosa, the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines. Bollettino del Laboratorio di Zoologia Generale e Agraria della Reale Scuola Superiore d'Agricoltura. Portici 24: 27-64.
• Wheeler W. M. 1930. A list of the known Chinese ants. Peking Natural History Bulletin 5: 53-81.
• Wu B., Y. Lu, G. Liang, and L. Zeng. 2010. Influence of the red inported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) on the diversity of ant communities in a newly infested longan orchard and grass areas nearby. Acta Ecologica Sinica 30(8): 2075-2083.
• Yamane S., S. Ikudome, and M. Terayama. 1999. Identification guide to the Aculeata of the Nansei Islands, Japan. Sapporo: Hokkaido University Press, xii + 831 pp. pp, 138-317.
• Yamane S.; Ikudome, S.; Terayama, M. 1999. Identification guide to the Aculeata of the Nansei Islands, Japan. Sapporo: Hokkaido University Press, xii + 831 pp. pp138-317.
• Zhang R. J., L. W. Liang, and S. Y. Zhou. 2014. An analysis on the ant fauna of Nonggang Nature Reserve in Guangxi, China. Journal of Guangxi Normal university: Natural Science Edition 32(3): 86-93.
• Zhou S.-Y. 2001. Ants of Guangxi. Guangxi Normal University Press, Guilin, China, Guilin, China. 255 pp.