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Camponotus
ocreatus Emery
Figures 211-212
Camponotus maculatus subsp.
ocreatus Emery, 1893:637; o. Wheeler, 1910a:309; o.
Camponotus acuitrostris subsp.
primipilaris Wheeler, 1910:319; _ o _.
Camponotus (Myrmoturba)
ocreatus: Wheeler, 1917:559.
Camponotus (Myrmotruba)
ocreatus subsp. primipilaris: Wheeler, 1917:562.
Camponotus (Tanaemyrmex)
ocreatus: Creighton, 1950:374, 378; o. Cole, 1966:19, 20;
o. Wheeler and Wheeler, 1973:111; o. Allred, 1982:456.
RANGE: Desert mountain ranges,
southern California to New Mexico, south to Baja California, Sonora
and Chihuahua.
DESERT RECORDS. Map 15. Inyo
Co.: Panamint Mts., 19 Apr 1891 (syntype; LACM). San Bernardino
Co.: nr. Piute Springs, 3000', Piute Range, 1 Oct 1978 (RRS,
#78-109; LACM); Keystone Canyon, New York Mts., 21 Apr 1977 (J.
Doyen; UCB); New York Mts., 23 Sept 1940 (C. Henne; LACM); nr. Sunflower
Springs, 3100', Old Woman Mts., 22 May 1965 (RRS; LACM); Pisgah
Crater, 12 Apr 1961 (Norris & Heath; LACM); Willis Well, Ord
Mts., 10 Nov. 1937 (E. Jaeger; LACM); Morongo Valley, 2500'-2600',
various dates & collectors (UCD, LACM). Riverside Co.:
Bell's Camp, JTNP, 9 July 1959 (F. C. Raney; UCD); Palm Springs,
475', 5 Apr 1925 (A. C. Cole; LACM); Palm Canyon, 3 Apr 1925 (P.
H. Timberlake; LACM). San Diego Co.: Anza-Borrego State Park,
10 Dec. 1953 (LACM).
DISCUSSION. This rather large
species cannot be easily confused with any other of the Camponotus
in the Mojave and Colorado Deserts. It seems always to have the
head and mesosomadark reddish brown with gaster blackish; the tibiae
are always
blackish, or at least conspicuously darker than the remainder of
the legs.
This is an ant primarily of desert mountain ranges; within the hot
desert it ranges in elevation from 475' to 4300'. However, it extends
well into the Piñon-juniper Woodland at elevations up to
about 6600 feet.Nests are in soil, usually on rocky slopes and are
most often located beneath stones. This is a crepuscular/nocturnal
species,
foraging individually. We have observed foragers at extrafloral
nectaries of cholla (Opuntia bigelovii).
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