Camponotus chromaiodes

This common species is usually darkly bicolor red. It seems to often largely replace C. pennsylvanicus in southern Ohio woodlands Chromoaiodes is nearly identical to C. pennsylvanicus in everywhere with exception to color.

Head and gaster black, alitrunk yellowish- to dark reddish-brown, sometimes nearly concolorous with head and gaster, legs commonly nearly concolorous with head and gaster, pronotum dorsally often suffused with black, base of gaster often tinged with reddish-brown, mandibles slightly redder than adjacent head, coxae, trochanters, and femora usually concolorous with alitrunk, legs darker distally; body with minute microsculpture; surface mostly satiny or dull, only weakly glossy in small areas, appressed pubescence of gaster relatively long, dense, and golden in color. The long appressed gastral pubescence, as described in the key, is diagnostic.

Although well-known as C. ferrugineus (earlier authors often using the archaic quadrinomial above), this name is a junior primary homonym of Formica ferruginea Christ, 1791 and must therefore be replaced.

Size

5.3mm - 13.1mm

Nuptial Flight Dates

April 11 - May 31

Habitat

Found in moist, rich woodlands.

Food

On bloom of Aster sp. (GAC 2208), honeydew (below). Davis & Bequaert ( 1922) list attending extrafloral nectaries of bigtooth aspen in New York.

Behavior

Workers found foraging on the ground and in leaf litter, on tree trunks, and on foliage in woods.

Nesting Information

In rotten logs, under bark of logs, and in decayed wood in bases of trees, one record under rock (against base of beech tree in adjacent wood). "Nests are located in and beneath well-rotted stumps with galleries often extending into the soil. They have also been found in dead standing trees and occasionally in moist or faulty wood in buildings."

Verified Locales (counties)

Adams, Ashtabula, Athens, Auglaize, Belmont, Brown, Butler, Carroll, Champaign, Clark, Clermont, Clinton, Columbiana, Coshocton, Crawford, Cuyahoga, Darke, Defiance, Delaware, Erie, Fairfield, Fayette, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Guernsey, Hamilton, Harrison, Henry, Highland, Hocking, Holmes, Huron, Jackson, Jefferson, Knox, Lake, Lawrence, Licking, Logan, Lorain, Lucas, Madison, Marion, Meigs, Miami, Montgomery, Morgan, Morrow, Muskingum, Noble, Ottawa, Perry, Pickaway, Pike, Preble, Ross, Sandusky, Scioto, Seneca, Shelby, Stark, Tuscarawas, Union, Vinton, Warren, Wood,

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1 comment

  1. Ayden

    I’m going to start an ant colony this year and I can’t wait

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