Alex Wild

If you are starting to learn ants, this should be your first genus: Camponotus. They are found everywhere in the world, there are a lot of ecologically important species, and you'll always have a point of familiarity in any fauna.

The genus includes North America's common carpenter ants.

#Ants #Photography #Insects #Camponotus
https://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Taxonomic-List-of-Ant-Genera/Camponotus

Camponotus - Alex Wild

is abundant and diverse nearly everywhere in the world. This ubiquitous formicine genus contains our familiar carpenter ants, as well as some tropical weaver ants and desert honeypot ants.

May 25 at 7:08pmWeb
Show threadmyrmepropagandistMay 25

@alexwild

And you can almost always let them crawl on your hand without a problem.

(wracking my brain to think of a single even slightly dangerous campo)

Show threadBarry GoldmanMay 25

@futurebird @alexwild haha! dangerous campos! once i was rutting around in a log full of campos and using my ant pooter and got a lungful of formic acid.

very effective, you little ants!

Show threadBen ChaseMay 26
@futurebird @alexwild Is the criterion “will bite”, “will sting”, or “is dangerous”? Wondering if C. Floridanus meets any of those.
Show threadmyrmepropagandistMay 25

@alexwild

Kate Moss looking ant

https://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Taxonomic-List-of-Ant-Genera/Camponotus/i-53bRxhg/A

Camponotus nidulans

Camponotus nidulans is one of several poorly-studied New World weaver ant species. Refugio Amazonas, Tambopata, Peru.

Show threadJon SullivanMay 25
@alexwild Not quite everywhere in the world. I looked and the one record of *Camponotus* from New Zealand on #iNaturalist is some dead ants found in a crate imported from India. So, none wild here (yet). https://inaturalist.nz/observations/73777917
Indian Black Ant (Camponotus compressus)

Indian Black Ant from Kaiapoi, New Zealand on April 13, 2021 at 08:41 AM by beady_eye_anita. I found this dead worker ant in a wooden crate from India. Can anyone confirm the species?

iNaturalist NZ
Show threadAlex WildMay 25
@joncounts New Zealand is so weird.
Show threadJon SullivanMay 25
@alexwild Yup. That’s true. NZ is as weird in the things we’re missing as how weird the things are that we’ve got.
Show threadBarry GoldmanMay 25

@alexwild @futurebird
https://

interesting, that IS how i got into ants!

blackskimmer.blogspot.com/2023/12/an-interesting-ant-plant-mutualism-and.html

Show threadmyrmepropagandistMay 25

@alexwild

I often wonder if this genus ought to be broken up more. Although it does make it easy to identify the genus of MANY ants correctly if you just look for the shape of their thorax. IDK... I look at Camponotus mirabilis and feel uncomfortable.

Show threadAlex WildMay 25
@futurebird It could, like Pheidole, be broken up. But the trouble is that there is so much convergence among different lineages that the ways of dividing them up that also preserve the integrity of evolutionary lineages would render the new genera quite hard to identify.
Show threadAlex WildMay 25
@futurebird So, one big genus that's easy to recognize as Camponotus, or 50 small ones that will give you a headache to sort.
Show threadBill HookerMay 25

@alexwild @futurebird

The eternal debate: not good vs evil, but Lumpers vs Splitters!

Show thread🐜May 26
@alexwild I never see them in my local areas. It's mostly Argentine ants & RIFAs. :(
Show threadNadege Roche-LabarbeMay 26
@alexwild I started my science curriculum with Ectatomma tuberculatum 🌳🐜 and she was the cutest little tank 🥰 most underrated ant 😌