Species: Camponotus snellingi

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2013)

Biology:

Habitat: C. nearcticus is a southeastern species that extends into Missouri's far southeastern corner. It inhabits swamp forests and moist thickets, where it nests in dead standing wood or hollow stems.

Natural History: C. snellingi nests above ground, beneath bark or in punky wood of dead branches or trunks. In Alabama and Florida I have collected it in dead, hollow stems of Smilax and other vines. I have never observed foraging, only ever finding the species by breaking open nests, so it may be strictly nocturnal. Like most of our Camponotus, alates of this species are reared in late summer and fall, but do not fly until the following spring. I made two collections of this species during a mid-April visit to Big Oak Tree State Park in Mississippi Co. MO, a small remnant of the vast swamp forest of the Missouri Boot Heel. The forest was cleared for agriculture in the 1930s, and was more like the swamp forests of Louisiana or Mississippi than like forests in the rest of Missouri. Further collection in that part of the state is need to determine if it is restricted to the mature swamp forest, or if it also inhabits the roadside and ditch-margin thickets that now are the typical woody vegetation of the region. One nest was in a storm-thrown dead limb of the Missouri's champion bur oak tree, and the other was in a punky stump of a dead ash. The colonies contained alates of both sexes. Missouri specimens have the gaster yellowish anteriorly, fading to dark brown posteriorly, as in this image from: Ants of southeastern United States .

Taxon Page Author History

4 Specimens Imaged | View All 4 Specimens for this species

CASENT0103729

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CASENT0103730

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CASENT0103731

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CASENT0103732

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