Colobopsis schmitzi

Colobopsis schmitzi nests within the swollen and hollow tendrils of the carnivorous plant Nepenthes bicalcarata (Clarke and Kitching 1995, Thornham et al. 2012). These ants can move across the slippery surface of the pitcher without being trapped, and also swim in the digestive fluid where they retrieve trapped insects.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Indo-Australian Region: Borneo, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia.

Biology
The pitcher plant Nepenthes bicalcarata traps and digests almost any insect, and ants in particular, yet simultaneously houses an obligate ant partner, C. schmitzi. Nepenthes are tropical perennials whose insect traps are jug-shaped structures at the tips of their leaves, filled with liquid. C. schmitzi ants live exclusively on N. bicalcarata, where they rear their brood in the hollow pitcher tendrils. They are able to forage unharmed in the pitchers because of their unique ability to walk across the slippery trapping surfaces on the pitcher rim (Bohn & Federle 2004), and to dive and swim in the digestive fluid (Bohn et al. 2012, Clarke and Kitching 1995). This allows the ants to exploit the pitcher as a food resource, removing and consuming prey captured by their host plant, as well as harvesting extrafloral nectar produced at the slippery pitcher rim (Merbach et al. 1999).



C. schmitzi ants increase the capture efficiency of Nepenthes by keeping the pitchers’ trapping surfaces clean. The ants also reduce nutrient loss from the pitchers by predating dipteran pitcher inhabitants. Consequently, nutrients that would be otherwise lost when flies emerge and fly out become available to pitchers as ant colony waste, i.e. excreta and carcasses (Scharmann et al. 2013, Thornham et al. 2012).

Castes
Are there phragmotic soldiers in this species,

Nomenclature

 *  schmitzi. Camponotus (Colobopsis) schmitzi Stärcke, 1933a: 29, figs. 1-6 (s.w.q.l.) BORNEO. Combination in Colobopsis: Ward, et al., 2016: 350.