Camponotus novaehollandiae

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Australasian Region: Australia, New Caledonia. Indo-Australian Region: Solomon Islands.

Nomenclature

 *  novaehollandiae. Camponotus novaehollandiae Mayr, 1870b: 939 (w.) AUSTRALIA. Mayr, 1876: 66 (q.m.). Combination in C. (Myrmoturba): Forel, 1915b: 98; Wheeler, W.M. 1915g: 814; in C. (Tanaemyrmex): Emery, 1925b: 96. Subspecies of sylvaticus: Forel, 1879a: 67; of rubripes: Forel, 1886f: 143; of maculatus: Forel, 1915b: 98; of variegatus: Emery, 1920c: 7; Emery, 1925b: 96. Revived status as species: Dalla Torre, 1893: 245; Clark, 1930c: 19; Taylor & Brown, D.R. 1985: 118. Senior synonym of villosus: McArthur & Leys, 2006: 109.
 * villosus. Camponotus (Myrmoturba) villosa Crawley, 1915a: 136 (s.w.) AUSTRALIA. Combination in C. (Tanaemyrmex): Emery, 1925b: 102. Junior synonym of novaehollandiae: McArthur & Leys, 2006: 109.

Description
Worker Length. 10-13 mm. Yellow shining rather pale legs, tarsus tending to be red, mandibles ferruginous, head more or less not dark; hairy, cheeks with short upstanding hair; antennae and tibia not hairy; sparse pubescence, tibia and scapes with plentiful short pubescence, somewhat erect, finely coriaceous, the gaster in the same manner with transverse wrinkles and grooves, mandibles finely (more or less finely coriaceous) with scattered punctures; Clypeus obtusely keeled, produced forward in a frontal lobe, anterior margin straight and emarginate on both sides; size of the body as in C.sylvatico Io.; petiole with ovate node, in a way thick, anterior face convex, posterior face flat, edges rounded. From Cape York. This as well as a second coming from the islands of the Pacific Ocean and a third yet doubtful form from the South East Islands I collected earlier, before I had obtained the true C.pallidus Sm. from Borneo through Marquese Doria, for this species. C.novaehollandae is different from C.pallidus in the larger size, the yellow color,the less compressed less convex thorax, in the cheeks covered with upstanding hair (in the worker major of C pallidus there is always only flat-lying hair), in the rather highly glossy body, the sparse pubescence of the gaster and in the absence of punctations on the gaster.

What now concerns the above mentioned second species from the southern islands (from Godeffroy Museum), I would like to postpone the description of the same until a larger number of specimens is available to me. It is also observed in the Adnot ad mon, indoneerl. Form. The given diagnosis of C. pallidus can be placed in no definite species and is therefore struck out.

Camponotus (Myrmoturba) villosa Crawley, W.C. (1915) Worker.-Length.9-12.5 mm. In the worker major the clypeus is carinate and feebly and widely emarginate; mandibles 7-dentate, finely reticulate, with scattered piligerous points; scapes just reach the occiput. Declivous surface of epinotum half as long as basal surface. Scale high, narrow. In the worker minor mandibles 6-dentate, clypeus carinate, anterior border straight, scale similarly shaped, but broader and lower. Whole body very finely reticulate, more feebly on gaster, and worker minor less than worker major. Scapes and tibiae hairy; the whole body with long scattered outstanding hairs. Yellow; head, mandibles, and gaster of worker major chestnut, darker, with a still darker patch on the vertex, joints of legs also darker; bases of first, second and third gastric segments yellow; worker minor entirely yellow, sometimes tip of head and gaster slightly darker. Batchelor, N.T., 12.xii.12.