Camponotus inflatus

Distribution
This taxon was described from Australia.

Nomenclature

 *  inflatus. Camponotus inflatus Lubbock, 1880: 186, pl. 8 (s.) AUSTRALIA. Froggatt, 1896: 389 (q.m.); Forel, 1910b: 73 (w.m.). Combination in C. (Myrmophyma): Forel, 1914a: 269. Senior synonym of aurofasciatus: Wheeler, W.M. 1916e: 40; Wheeler, W.M. 1916i: 37.
 * aurofasciatus. Camponotus (Myrmamblys) aurofasciatus Wheeler, W.M. 1915g: 817, pl. 66, fig. 7 (w.) AUSTRALIA. [Unresolved junior primary homonym of aurofasciatus Santschi, above.] Junior synonym of inflatus: Wheeler, W.M. 1916e: 40.

Description
Lubbock, J. (1880). The color is black, the feet being somewhat paler. The body is sparsely covered with stiff cinereo-testaceous hairs, especially on the lower and anterior part of the head, the mandibles, and the posterior edge of the thorax. The head and thorax are finely coriaceous. The antennae are of moderate length, twelve-jointed; the scape about one third as long as the terminal portion and somewhat bent. At the apex of the scape are a few short spines, bifurcated at the point. At the apex of each of the succeeding segments are a few much less conspicuous spines, which decrease in size from the basal segments outwards. The antenna is also thickly clothed with short hairs, and especially towards the apex with leaf-shaped sense-hairs. The clypeus is rounded, with a slightly developed median lobe and a row of stiff hairs round the anterior border; it is not carinated. The mandibles have six teeth, those on one side (fig. 3) being rather more developed and more pointed than those on the other. They decreased pretty regularly from the outside inwards. The maxillae (fig. 5) are formed on the usual type. The maxillary palpi are six-joined, the third segment being but slightly longer than the second, fourth and fifth; which in Myrmecocystus the third and fourth are greatly elongated. The segments of the palpi have on the inner side a number of curious curved blunt hairs besides the usual shorter ones. The labial palpi are four-jointed (fig. 4) the eyes are elliptical and of moderate size. The ocelli are not developed. The thorax (figs. 7 and 8) is arched, broadest in front, without any marked incision between the meso- and metanotum (= propodeum); the mesonotum itself is, which seen from above, very broadly oval, almost circular, rather boarder in front and somewhat flattened behind. Figs. 7 and 8 give outlines of the thorax, seen laterally and from above. The legs are of moderate length, the hinder ones somewhat the longest. The scale or knot (fig. 6) is heart-shaped, flat behind, slightly arched in front, and with a few stiff, slightly diverging hairs at the upper angles. The length is about two thirds of an inch (16.5 mm).

Wheeler (1908). Lubbock described the worker of this ant in 1880 from specimens taken at Adelaide, Australia. His diagnosis was, however, so imperfect that the insect had to be redescribed by Forel (1886). McCook (1882) has also studied and figured this species (1882, Figs. 71 and 74). According to Forel, it "had nothing to distinguish it particularly from other Camponoti, except the purely physiological distension of its gaster, evidently due to the enormous plenitude of the crop, as in Myrmecocystus melliger. This dilation, however, is smaller than that of melliger." More recently (1896) Froggatt has described the male and female of C. inflatus from specimens collected as Ayers Rock, Illamurta in the James Ranges of Central Australia. All three phases of this ant are black with paler legs and antennae. The repletes measure 70 mm. Froggatt records the following notes sent him by Baldwin Spencer: "The black honey ant (Camponotus inflatus Lub.) is called `Yarumpa' by the natives, by whom it is esteemed a great luxury; it is, par excellence, the honey ant of the central country, and ranges across the Murchison in Western Australia.  We found them plentiful in certain districts on the hard sandy plains, and also very abundant in patches among the Mulga scrub. The ground all round Ayers Rock, to the south of Lake Amadeus, was strewn with heaps of sand where the natives had been digging them out. They construct no mounds over their nests; the entrance, which is an inch in length by a quarter of an inch in width, leads down into a vertical shaft or burrow from five or six feet in depth. About a foot below the surface horizontal passages about a foot in length lead off from the main shaft, at the end of which were three or four of the honey ants, while the bottom of the main shaft, which is excavated into a larger cavity, contains a considerable number. The `honey ants' are quite incapable of movement and must be fed by the workers. Unlike all the other ants noticed in this country, these did not appear to collect twigs, leaves or grass to carry into their burrows."