.jpg){kind=logo}
Camponotus fallax species group
Based on Radchenko 1997.
Species
Members of the subgenus Myrmentoma
- Camponotus fallax
- Camponotus himalayanus
- Camponotus jejuensis
- Camponotus keihitoi
- Camponotus kolthoffi
- Camponotus lameerei
- Camponotus quadrinotatus
- Camponotus tergestinus
- Camponotus truebi
- Camponotus wroughtonii
Species Identification
There is no key for the group but some fallax group species are included in the following Camponoutus keys:
Group Diagnosis
Small to moderate body size, regularly arched mesosoma sometimes with shallow concavity between mesonotum and propodeum, straight to angular dorsal surface of propodeum, shiny surface of mesosoma and gaster, and short and never dense pubescence hairs on gaster.
Distribution
Southern-European, Central-Middle Asian, and Far Eastern or, more generally, from East to West across the southern Palaearctic.
Radchencko subdivided the fallax group into regional complexes.
European
Camponotus fallax - Middle, Southern, and Eastern Europe as far as the Urals; Camponotus tergestinus - Italy and the Balkans.
Camponotus quadrinotatus complex
Southern Far East to the Taiwan Islands / Eastern Palaearctic - Camponotus quadrinotatus, C. keihitoi. C. jejuensis, and C. truebi
Camponotus himalayans complex
mountains of Middle Asia - Camponotus himalayans, C. kolthoffi, and C. wroughtoni
Notes
In Radchenko's 1997 revision he implies the fallax group is closely related or is perhaps identical to the C. caryae species-group. In addition, some species described long ago have in the past been considered subspecies or varieties of C. caryae. Thus the fallax group is provisionally placed under Emery's caryae species-group.
The species group appears to have centers of diversity (see the complexes given above in the distribution section), and probably of origin too, that are located in the E Palaearctic; from Middle Asia to Japan exclusive. One could argue for the Eastern origin of the fallax group based on the fact that nearly all Nearctic species of the subgenus Myrmentoma are closely related to the very similar, if not identical, caryae species group.