A New Species of Camponotus, Subg. Colobopsis from Mexico (Hymenoptera: Formicidæ)

Abstract

Ants of the genus Camponotus, subgenus Colobopsis Mayr, occur in all zoogeographical regions of the world except possibly the Ethiopian. They form small colonies of a few dozen to sev eral hundred individuals, nesting in culms of sedges, stalks of plants, branches of trees and shrubs, insect galls, hollow nuts and acorns, and crevices of wood. Some forms, if not all, may be polydomous. Although most of them are diurnal, there are also some that are nocturnal. Their food seems to be largely honeydew and the flesh of arthropods. In the species of this group there are dimorphic or feebly polymorphic workers, thelargest individuals of which are known as soldiers and are easily recognized by the peculiarly shaped subeylindrical head, the anterior portion of which is truncated and very often concave. The head is well adapted for blocking the small, circular openings of the nest to keep out intruders. Although the soldier and female can be readily distinguished from other forms of Cam ponotus, the worker and male are not so easily recognized. Camponotus (Colobopsis) nLathildece is, so far as I am aware, the second species to be described from Mexico, Emery having described cerberulus from a female collected in the State of