''Camponotus japonicus'', commonly known as the Japanese carpenter ant, is a species of ant native to eastern Asia. It is black, and one of the largest ants. A nest has about ten to thousands of individuals, and it can be a pest when it enters households or protects

aphids Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids. A t ...

. There are several subspecies of this ant in different areas of Asia, with the largest of the species being located in northern China.

Appearance

The queen is black, but has microscopic brown hair protruding from the thorax and abdomen. They are 17 millimeters long. Before mating, the queen has four transparent brown wings supported by brown veins. The 12-millimeter-long male has a longer and straighter antennae and a slimmer body. Unlike the workers, both the queen and the male has three

ocelli A simple eye (sometimes called a pigment pit) refers to a form of eye or an optical arrangement composed of a single lens and without an elaborate retina such as occurs in most vertebrates. In this sense "simple eye" is distinct from a multi-l ...

. The workers are divided into three subcastes based on their size, which varies from 6 to 15 millimeters. The largest subcaste of workers is also called the soldier.

Range

''Camponotus japonicus'' inhabits a wide range, including Japan, Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines, China, Mongolia and Russia (

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

). It was first identified in India in the state of

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...

in the

Tawang district Tawang district (Pron:/tɑ:ˈwæŋ or təˈwæŋ/) is the smallest of the 26 administrative districts of Arunachal Pradesh state in northeastern India. With a population of 49,977, it is the eighth least populous district in the country (out o ...

near Kitpi lake, at an elevation of 1700 meters.

Parasitism

This ant serves as a host species for the parasite, ''

Niphanda fusca ''Niphanda fusca'' is a parasitic butterfly primarily found in East Asian countries such as Japan and Korea. It is a "cuckoo-type" parasite of the ant '' Camponotus japonicus''. It utilizes chemical mimicry to trick the host worker ants into ad ...

''. The butterfly species will release cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) that mimic the CHC of the adult male ant. The ant will then adopt the third instar larva of ''N. fusca'' into its nest, feed it mouth-to-mouth, and raise it on its own. This behavior is an example of

brood parasitism Brood parasites are animals that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its ow ...

and obligate parasitism.Masaru K Hojo, Ayako Wada-Katsumata, Toshiharu Akino, Susumu Yamaguchi, Mamiko Ozaki, Ryohei Yamaoka (2009). Chemical disguise as particular caste of host ants in the ant inquiline parasite Niphanda fusca (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). Proceedings of the Royal Society B 2009 276 551-558; DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.1064.

References

External links

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Camponotus japonicus
at

AntWeb AntWeb is the leading online database on ants: storing specimens images and records, and natural history information, and documenting over 490,000 specimens across over 35,000 taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plura ...

japonicus Insects described in 1866 Ants of Japan {{formicinae-stub