Carpenter Ant

Description:

This is a species of Carpenter Ant in the Genus Camponotus. Most species in this genus are more easily identified from the major workers. Many are large ants; all have antennal bases separated from clypeal border by a space at least equal to the maximum diameter of the scape, mesosomal dorsal profile a continuous curve from pronotum through propodeum (except some subgenus Colobopsis, and these are easily recongnized by the truncate and heavily punctate circumoral portion of the head of majors).

Habitat:

Deciduous forests to deserts, a few in grassland and boreal forest. Also urban and suburban areas; some build galleries in wood, or inhabit within-wall spaces in buildings or economically important trees, and are considered pests. Alates of early-flying species are reared in late summer, then overwinter in the nest. This is one of the most species-rich ant genera, with at least 1000 species world-wide. Most subgenus Myrmentoma and all Colobopsis are strictly arboreal, while most Tanaemyrmex and some others nest in soil. The rest vary or occur somewhere in between. This one was photographed at night near a southern deciduous forest in the midlands of South Carolina.

Notes:

Active during the frost-free season in the north, all year during warm weather in southernmost USA. Mating flights of the majority of species occur late April-May, but subgenus Colobopsis and subtropical and desert species fly in summer. Omnivorous - eat honeydew, sap, living and dead insects, etc. Do not eat wood, only nest in it, and usually only after fungi have softened it.