eastern black carpenter ant

(Camponotus pennsylvanicus)

Conservation Status
IUCN Red List

not listed

NatureServe

NNR - Unranked

Minnesota

not listed

 
eastern black carpenter ant
Photo by Alfredo Colon
 
Description

Eastern black carpenter ant is a common, large, black ant. It occurs in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and in the Pacific Northwest. It also occurs in southern Canada from Nova Scotia to Manitoba. In the U.S., it is by far the most common carpenter ant (Camponotus spp.) in the northeast and in the Midwest.

Eastern black carpenter ant is a habitat generalist. It is found in a wide variety of habitats, including deciduous and mixed woodlands and forests, the canopy of floodplain forests, grasslands, weedy areas, and parks. It is common in urban areas. It nests exclusively in rotting wood, in old logs and stumps, in the dead branches and stems of living trees, and occasionally in attics and under wood roofs of old houses. It starts small colonies inside old disused insect galls. It forages day and night, on the ground and in trees.

A recent study (Hansen and Klotz, 2005) concluded that the eastern black carpenter ant is the most important structural pest in eastern North America. It is a common house infesting ant. It causes damage to the beams of frame houses and to fences, and it commonly infests utility poles. It is difficult to control, because the nest inside a house is usually a satellite colony. The main nest, the one containing the queen, is often 200 to 300 meters away from the site of the damage. The colonies are often large, with 2,000 to 5,000 workers, and they can be very large, with 10,000 to 15,000 workers.

There are three different sizes of workers: minors, medias, and majors. Minors are small, majors are large, and medias are in between.

The majors are ½ to 916 (12 to 14 mm) in length. The body is entirely black, and the surfaces are mostly dull. There are appressed hairs (setae) on most surfaces.

The head is as wide as long and is squared off at the top corners. The rear margin of the head is concave. There are two large compound eyes and three simple eyes (ocelli). The compound eyes do not quite reach the side of the head. The antennae have 12 segments. The first segment (scape) is very long, extending past the rear lateral corner of the head a distance equal to one or two of the following segments. It has no erect hairs except at the very tip. The distance from the base of the scape to the middle face plate (clypeus) is equal to or greater than the maximum width of the scape. The clypeus is not ridged. The lower margin is weakly concave, and it is not notched. There are sparse appressed hairs on the head, but there are no erect hairs on the cheeks or on the sides of the head.

The entire front part of the body (mesosoma), when viewed from the side, forms a continuous curve.

The abdomen consists of a large first segment (propodeum) that is fused to the thorax; a narrow waist-like second segment (petiole); and the bulbous remainder (gaster). The propodeum has a front upper face and a rear sloping face, and it is weakly angled between the two. The petiole

The gaster is dull. The entire surface is covered with both appressed and erect golden hairs, though these are sometimes not apparent. The appressed hairs are long, more than 1128 (0.2 mm) long, nearly as long as the erect hairs. They are abundant, almost all of them overlapping adjacent hairs. The erect hairs are scattered.

The minors are ¼ (6 to 7 mm) in length. The rear margin of the head is straight or rounded. The scapes are shorter, extending just one-half the length of the next segment. They are otherwise similar to the majors.

 

Size

Minor worker: ¼ (6 to 7 mm)

Major worker: ½ to 916 (12 to 14 mm)

Queen: to 1116 (15 to 18 mm)

 

Similar Species

 
Habitat

Deciduous and mixed woodlands and forests, floodplain forests, grasslands, weedy areas, parks, and urban areas.

Biology

Season

March through October

 

Behavior

 

 

Life Cycle

 

 

Larva Food

 

 

Adult Food

 

Distribution

Distribution Map

 

Sources

24, 27, 29, 30, 80, 82, 83.

Janicki, J., Narula, N., Ziegler, M., Guénard, B. Economo, E.P. (2016) Visualizing and interacting with large-volume biodiversity data using client-server web-mapping applications: The design and implementation of antmaps.org. Ecological Informatics 32: 185-193

12/7/2024    
     

Occurrence

 

Taxonomy

Order

Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies)

Suborder

Apocrita (narrow-waisted wasps, ants, and bees)

Infraorder

Aculeata (ants, bees, and stinging wasps)

Superfamily

Formicoidea

Family

Formicidae (ants)

Subfamily

Formicinae

Tribe

Camponotini

Genus

Camponotus (carpenter ants)

Subgenus

Camponotus (true carpenter ants)

   

Subordinate Taxa

 

   

Synonyms

Camponotus herculeanus herculeanopennsylvanicus

Camponotus herculeanus mahican

Camponotus pensylvanica

Formica pennsylvanicus

   

Common Names

black carpenter ant

eastern black carpenter ant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Clypeus

On insects, a hardened plate on the face above the upper lip (labrum).

 

Gaster

The bulbous part of the abdomen of ants, bees, and wasps. In ants it usually begins at segment three.

 

Ocellus

Simple eye; an eye with a single lens. Plural: ocelli.

 

Petiole

On plants: The stalk of a leaf blade or a compound leaf that attaches it to the stem. On ants and wasps: The constricted first one or two segments of the rear part of the body.

 

Propodeum

In Hymenoptera: the last segment of the thorax, anatomically the first segment of the abdomen.

 

Scape

In plants: An erect, leafless stalk growing from the rootstock and supporting a flower or a flower cluster. In insects: The basal segment of the antenna.

 

Seta

A stiff, hair-like process on the outer surface of an organism. In Lepidoptera: A usually rigid bristle- or hair-like outgrowth used to sense touch. In mosses: The stalk supporting a spore-bearing capsule and supplying it with nutrients. Plural: setae. Adjective: setose.

 

 

 

 

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Alfredo Colon

eastern black carpenter ant    
     
eastern black carpenter ant   eastern black carpenter ant
     

eastern black carpenter ant

  eastern black carpenter ant
     
eastern black carpenter ant   eastern black carpenter ant
     
eastern black carpenter ant   eastern black carpenter ant
     
eastern black carpenter ant   eastern black carpenter ant
     
eastern black carpenter ant   eastern black carpenter ant
     
eastern black carpenter ant   eastern black carpenter ant
     
Hart’s jumping spider   Hart’s jumping spider
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Alfredo Colon
6/20/2024

Location: Albany, NY

eastern black carpenter ant

Alfredo Colon
9/6/2022

Location: Albany, NY

eastern black carpenter ant

Alfredo Colon
8/25/2022

Location: Albany, NY

eastern black carpenter ant

Alfredo Colon
8/22/2022

Location: Albany, NY

eastern black carpenter ant

Alfredo Colon
8/15/2022

Location: Albany, NY

eastern black carpenter ant

Alfredo Colon
8/7/2022

Location: Albany, NY

eastern black carpenter ant

Alfredo Colon
8/6/2022

Location: Albany, NY

eastern black carpenter ant

Alfredo Colon
8/5/2022

Location: Albany, NY

eastern black carpenter ant
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Created: 12/7/2024

Last Updated:

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