Camponotus lighti Queen inside her chamber

September 2018, the Southeast Asia region was hit by one of the strongest typhoons on record. Typhoon Mangkhut made landfall near Macau on 15th and 16th September. A storm surge of up to 1.9 metres affected Macau. 40 people were injured. And for the first time in history, all casinos were closed. Total damage was estimated to be US$215.3 million.

But for every dark night there's a brighter day.

On the 17th September, Macau’s first and only entomologist Dr. Danny Leong, sent me a message asking if I would like to go anting in one of Macau’s hills… a forest which is now totally surrounded by the city. And of course I immediately said yes :D

Such a powerful typhoon would certainly be able to break and snap big branches from old trees, that should contain ant colonies inside, and this was a great opportunity to find them, as they would be lying scattered around the forest floor.

The day was packed and full of fantastic finds, but when we finally decided to call it a day, as we were coming out of the forest, we found some big branches that had been saw cut and piled up by the forest management team. Upon closer inspection we found a small Camponotus colony. Danny took out some samples of his own, and I got to keep the whole twig for myself. I didn’t know if there was a queen inside or not, but I decided to try nonetheless. Here is the first photo of the colony

And so I am delighted to present to you the arboreal Carpenter ant species of Camponotus lighti !

This species can be found exclusively in Taiwan and the Chinese regions of Guangdong, Hunan, Fujian in the south and Jiangsu further up north.

They belong to the Formicinae subfamily, the Camponotus genus, also known as carpenter ants, and the myrmamblys subgenus. They are considered a medium to small species. The total length of majors does not exceed 7mm. Most species of the old world subgenus myrmamblys live in the forest edge and disturbed or secondary forest.

The species inside the myrmamblys subgenus are commonly called the Eastern False Cork-Head Ants, and are similar to some other subgenera of Camponotus and especially to Colobopsis genus, and all of which show a morphological trend toward phragmosis.

Phragmosis means any method by which an animal defends itself in its burrow, by using its own body as a barrier.

Camponotus lighti worker defending the nest entrance

Phragmosis is shown in these ants in the form of partial or complete truncation of the anterior end of the head

In plain english, they look like cork head ants, behave like cork head ants, but simply don’t have such pronounced truncated heads in their queen and soldier caste, hence the name false.

This species presents an accentuated worker dimorphism, with distinctive minor and soldier castes.

Observations suggest that this species gathers honeydew as energy source and sucks insect body fluid as protein source as well as solid food. Minors and majors are observed returning to the nest with distended gasters, but inside the nest, only majors seem to continue to be in replete state.

The colony remained on their original twigs for almost another year, but they were growing more and more, which confirmed the existence of the Queen inside the capture branches.

So it was time for a major nest upgrade!
For the Camponotus lighti, I knew exactly who to call, for I had been following on Instagram, an european keeper who started doing these awesome wood nests. His name is Tomasz, and the account is Foranto Wood Nests.

Quick disclaimer here, I am not doing any publicity or have any kickback from this. I am just giving credit where credit is deserved.

So I called Tomasz, and placed an order for two wood nests.

Please take a look, and tell you what you think!

I personally love it as I think it gives an awesome inside look to what a realistic arboreal ant nest would look like from the inside.

Arboreal ants are ants species that nest on trees, and tree branches and use above-ground vegetation as primary foraging substrates, through a variety of surfaces, including bark of varying rugosity, moss, lichens, stems, and leaves.

Arboreal ants can be found mostly in tropical and sub-tropical areas because in the case of temperate regions, the drastic changes in temperature in the habitat as a consequence of a strongly seasonal climate, make it almost impossible for ants to inhabit such strata.

Arboreal ants are characterized by:

(0) slender and streamlined bodies

(1) extremely populous colonies (several hundred thousand to several million individuals)

(2) the ability to build large and/or polydomous nests, in carton nest, in weaved nest, or nesting inside wood

(3) and a highly developed territoriality and defensive mechanism.

One year apart photos.

The ants loved their new nest and immediately started to take over each and every chamber as the colony grew.

The colony has been with me for almost 4 years now and its been the third year they produce alates.

This colony is quite famous actually!

It has even made an appearance on an ant keeping article in National Geographic Online Magazine, where their nest was featured as front cover image.

And this brings us up to today!

The colony is doing fantastic, and this year it will be the first time they are producing alates in two separate occasions.

The first time was immediately after the winter diapause which ended in late January 2022.

And this is the second time April 2022. Look at all the white mass!

Amazing!

This will wrap this long due entry log!

I will keep you posted on the future growth and developments of the colony!

Let me know if you have any comments!

Cheers!

Camponotus lighti, the Eastern False Cork-head Ants

The Amber Javelin Ants

Blaberus giganteus, the Giant Cave Roach