Foraging Carpenter Ant

Description:

A large Ant, alone on a large boulder, was dragging a Honey Bee, struggling to move it along over the hot boulder. She had grasped the bee between the thorax and abdomen to balance the load on either side of her mandibles. Because of her size (about the same as the Honey Bee), I think this is a Major Worker of the Carpenter Ant Species Camponotus vicinus. This species can nest under rocks and often forages individually. The head and abdomen are black, the thorax and pedicel red, while the legs are mostly red.

Habitat:

Hot, dry, chaparral with huge boulders, an area known as the "Lizard's Mouth" above Santa Barbara, California.

Notes:

http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Camponotus_v... http://bugguide.net/node/view/364855 http://naturalista.conabio.gob.mx/taxa/6... http://www.alexanderwild.com/keyword/Cam...