Alex WildMay 25

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.

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 Wild
@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.
May 25 at 10:20pmWeb
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!