california desert ants

Genus CAMPONOTUS Mayr

Camponotus hyatti Emery
Figures 213-214, 224

     Camponotus hyatti Emery, 1893:680; pl. 22 fig. 25, 26; o. Wheeler, 1910a:345; o.
     Camponotus sayi var. bicolor Pergande, 1894:161; o _. (preoccupied)
     Camponotus sayi var. californicus Emery, 1925:118. New name for C. sayi bicolor Pergande.
     Camponotus (Myrmentoma) hyatti: Creighton, 1950:384, 387;o. Cole, 1966:19; o. Allred, 1982:455. Wheeler and Wheeler, 1986:61. Snelling, 1988:69-70.

     RANGE: Southern Oregon and southwestern Idaho, south to southwestern Nevada and Baja California.

     DESERT RECORDS. Map 15. Inyo Co.: Lone Pine, 3700', 8 June 1973 (E. L. Paddock; CDFA); Hunter Canyon, 2800', Inyo Mts., 2 Apr 1976 (DG; LACM).

     DISCUSSION. Our two records are clearly intrusions via the Great Basin Sagebrush Desert. Since these are "arboreal" ants in a habitat not noted for a high incidence of arboreal ants, they are understandably difficult to locate. This species has been found nesting in large stems of sagebrush (Artemisia).
     The peculiar structure of the clypeus and the mesosomal profile are definitive for this ant. Unlike C. sayi, another desert member of the same subgenus, C. hyatti has the head and mesosoma distinctly brownish, rather than clear red. Thus, the two are easily separated in the field.