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Camponotus
sansabeanus (Buckley)
Figures 217?218, 223
Formica sansabeana Buckley, 1866:167; o _ _.
Camponotus maculatus subsp. maccooki var. sansabeanus:
Emery, 1893:672; o _.
Camponotus maculatus subsp. sansabeanus: Wheeler,
1910a:307; o _ _.
Camponotus maculatus subsp. sansabeanus var. torrefactus Wheeler,
1910a:308; o _. Unavailable quadrinomial.
Camponotus maculatus subsp. sansabeanus var. bulimosus Wheeler,
1910a:308; o _. Unavailable quadrinomial
Camponotus (Tanaemyrmex) sansabeanus: Creighton, 1950:375,
378?179; pl. 50; o _ _. Gregg, 1963:669?671; map; o.
Wheeler and Wheeler, 1973:110, 111. Allred, 1982:457. Wheeler and
Wheeler, 1986:14, 62.
Camponotus (Tanaemyrmex) sansabeanus subsp. bulimosus: Creighton,
1950:375, 379; o.
Camponotus (Tanaemyrmex) sansabeanus subsp. torrefactus: Creighton,
1950:375, 379; o.
Camponotus sansabeanus: Allred, 1982:457. Cokendolpher
and Francke, 1990:34.
RANGE: Central Texas to southern California; Utah; southern
Colorado.
DESERT RECORDS. Map 15. Inyo Co.: Charcoal Kilns, 6300',
Panamint Range, DVNP, 4 May 1968 (GJW, #Cal.439; GJW). Los Angeles
Co.: 2 mi S Pearblossom 3500', 7 May 1965 (RRS; LACM); 4 mi SE Pearblossom,
4300', 20 Mar 1966 (RRS; LACM). Riverside Co.: Shaver's Well, 500',
7 Apr 1935 (LACM); Deep Canyon, 3400'?5500', various dates (Wheeler
& Wheeler, 1973:111). San Bernardino Co.: Bathtub Springs, 5800
ft., Mid Hills, 7-8 Oct. 1973 (J.P. & K.E. Donahue; LACM); 2.8
mi NW Desert Springs, 14 Mar 1955 (P. H. Timberlake; LACM).
DISCUSSION. As noted by Wheeler and Wheeler (1973) this species
is quite variable. They found that their material was
about equally divided between the nominate form and the color
variant torrefactus. Much the same situation is true of samples
from other areas as well. Long series of specimens from the
mountains of southern Arizona and adjacent Mexico exhibit so much
variation that these populations, the so?called subspecies
bulimosus, cannot be satisfactorily separated from the nominate
form. Many species in this group are extremely variable and
local color forms may be quite striking, but intensive sampling
of an area usually discloses that these forms are part of a
continuously variable population. Such forms, once named, can
only burden the systematist with more names and more problems, to
little profit. At this point, we see no value to recognizing
either bulimosus or torrefactus.
Since this ant and C. vicinus both have the base of the scape
flattened, it is possible to confuse the two. Major workers are
necessary, as a rule, before one can distinguish between them.
In C. sansabeanus the scape is short, barely surpassing the
corner of the vertex. The apex of the scape exceeds the vertex
corner by more than the length of the second antennal segment in
C. vicinus. The major of C. sansabeanus has a distinctly quadrate
head that is usually broader than long and the margin, in frontal
view, distinctly bowed. The head of major workers of C. vicinus
is longer than broad, conspicuously narrowed toward the mandibular
insertions through straight margins when seen in frontal view.
Camponotus sansabeanus desert collections have been from elevations
between 500 and 6300 feet, the latter in Piñon?juniper Woodland.
Nests may be under stones or at the base of a woody shrub. In addition
to Piñon?juniper Woodland, we have records from Joshua Tree
Woodland and Wash Woodland.
As with most of our other Camponotus, this species is
primarily nocturnal and an omnivorous scavenger with a strong
predilection for carbohydrates.
Reproductives have been found in nests in March and April.
Brues (1904) recorded the phorid fly, Apocephalus coquilletti Malloch
(as A. pergandei Coquillett), as a parasitoid on C. sansabeanus
in Austin, Texas. B. V. Brown (pers. comm.) has found A. similis
Malloch attacking this ant in southern Arizona.
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