Camponotus claripes nudimalis

Apparently confined to the south-west (WA). This is one of the very few Camponotus species that will forage inside Perth houses. At least some colonies of this ant make their nest in living trees. A well-grown Eucalyptus ficifolia F. Muell on the author’s property contains a nest of C. claripes nudimalis, with tunnels under the outer bark. Copious amounts of sawdust within bark crevices, and on the ground around the tree indicate that these ants have been actively engaged in excavating wood from the living tree, even though the colony may have been established in pre-existing cavities made by another arthropod.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Australasian Region: Australia.

Nomenclature

 * . Camponotus claripes var. nudimalis Forel, 1913g: 191 (s.) AUSTRALIA (Western Australia).
 * Combination in C. (Myrmophyma): Emery, 1925b: 110.
 * Subspecies of claripes: Emery, 1925b: 110; Taylor & Brown, 1985: 112; Taylor, 1987a: 11; Bolton, 1995b: 114; Heterick, 2009: 69.

Description
I received at the time from M.Michaelsen from Bridgetown, Western Australia a worker major which I had assigned to claripes. But in reality it constitutes a different variety which is distinguished by its extremely sparse pilosity, absolutely absent on the cheeks, and also by the pits on its clypeus which are transformed into oblique long coarse grooves. These grooves are very distinct. The insect is very shiny with the gaster a dark brown, the head and the thorax a little yellowish light brown and the limbs yellowish.