Hercules Carpenter Ant

Pronunciation

How to pronounce Camponotus herculeanus: //ˌkæmpəˈnoʊtəs ˌhɜːrkjʊˈliːənəs//

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Summary

Camponotus herculeanus, commonly known as the Hercules Carpenter Ant, is a species of ant found in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in conifer forests and mountainous regions. It is notable for its large size, social structure within colonies, and its ability to occupy varied habitats. Its nests are typically found in rotting wood and it has a significant ecological role by preying on insects and forming mutualistic relationships with aphids.

Physical Characteristics

Workers usually have blackish heads and gasters, and dark reddish-brown mesosomas, petioles, and legs. Queens are large, about 15 mm (0.6 in) in length, and are blackish in colour. Males are similar in colour but about half the size of the queens. The largest majors have bristly dorsal surfaces of the mesosoma and gaster.

Identification Tips

In majors, the scapes are shorter than the length of the head; in intermediates they are about the same length, and in minors, they extend well beyond the back of the head. Similar to C. novaeboracencis in New Brunswick.

Habitat

Inhabiting conifer and hardwood forests, clearings, oak scrubland, disturbed areas, pastures, and seashore grassland. Nests found in rotting wood of standing and fallen dead trees and stumps, and in hollows and dead limbs of living trees.

Distribution

Present in most of Europe, Central and Northern Asia, Canada, and the United States. Common in mountainous regions, especially in the northern parts of North America.

Diet

Diet consists of honeydew produced by sap-sucking insects and insect larvae encountered during foraging. Also tends aphids and larvae of the silvery blue butterfly (Glaucopsyche lygdamus).

Life Cycle

Colony consists of one or several wingless females (queens), fertile males, and three castes of sterile workers (majors, intermediates, minors). Winged reproductives are produced in late summer, overwintering in the colony, and emerging to fly in swarms on warm spring days.

Reproduction

Queens lay eggs, which develop into winged reproductives in late summer; winged reproductives leave the colony to mate and disperse in the spring.

Ecosystem Role

Predators of various insect larvae, and they play a role in controlling aphid populations.

Evolution

First described as Formica herculeana by Linnaeus in 1758, moved to Camponotus by Mayr in 1861.

Similar Taxa

• C. novaeboracencis

Tags

• ant
• Hercules Carpenter Ant
• Camponotus
• formicidae
• insect