Camponotus semitestaceus Snelling
Figures 4, 219

     Camponotus maculatus subsp. vicinus var. semitestaceus Emery, 1893:672; o. Wheeler, 1910a:304; o. Unavailable quadrinomial
     Camponotus maculatus subsp. maccooki: Emery, 1893:672; o. (in part, misidentification). Wheeler, 1910a:306; o _ _. (in part, misidentification).
     Camponotus (Tanaemyrmex) maccooki: Creighton, 1950:374, 377-378; o (in part, misidentification).
     Camponotus (Tanaemyrmex) semitestaceus: Snelling, 1970:390-397; fig. 1B, 1E, 2C; o _ _. First available use
     Camponotus semitestaceus: Wheeler and Wheeler, 1973:111, 112-113; figs. 40, 41; o. Allred, 1982:457. Wheeler and Wheeler, 1986: 62, 63. Cokendolpher and Francke, 1990:34-35 (misidentification ?).

      RANGE: Washington and Idaho south to Baja California. NOTE: the range given by Wheeler and Wheeler (1973:113) is evidently incorrect; no material has been seen from Oklahoma and Texas, and these records may be based on C. sansabeanus. We believe the specimens reported from western Texas by Cokendolpher and Francke
are probably misidentified.

     DESERT RECORDS. Map 16. Marginal in our area: 25 records.

      DISCUSSION. This common ant is usually associated with chaparral and Piñon-juniper habitats, but follows stream courses into true desert areas. In earlier literature, this is the ant commonly known as C. maccooki. That name, however, belongs to a
quite different species. There has also been much confusion with C. dumetorum Wheeler, a distinct Coastal Scrub species which Creighton (1950) treated as a synonym of C. "maccooki" (i.e., C. semitestaceus); for fuller discussion, see Snelling (1970).
      Among the species in our area, C. semitestaceus can be confused with C. sansabeanus and C. vicinus. In both of these species the base of the scape is flattened, but is not broadened to form a weak lobule. The only other superficially
similar form is C. ocreatus, but that species has the base of the scape is cylindrical.
     Our desert collections, between 550 and 5400 feet, are from Sagebrush Scrub and Joshua Tree Woodland.
      Nests are often under stones or at the base of shrubs such as Artemisia, Eriogonum, and Haplopappus.
      Our records reflect the fondness of this ant for carbohydrates. We have found foragers associated with aphids on roots of Gutierrezia microcephala and at nectaries of Yucca whipplei and Eriogonum fasciculatum. Since they are omnivores, they occasionally manage to take prey (Fig. 314). This species is nocturnal.
      Reproductive castes have been collected from nests in February, March and April. Mating flights in chaparral areas are in the spring months, following a rain.

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