Buckeye Myrmecology

05/22/2026

Gateway Bugs

05/08/2026

New Season, Larger Ants!

04/25/2026

Arboreal Ant Diets

12/01/2025

Camponotus sansabeanus

11/01/2025

Pheidole rhea

10/08/2025

Camponotus modoc

09/14/2025

09/07/2025

05/30/2025

05/22/2025

While deserts immediately spring to mind when most people think of the American west, mountains are usually close behind. Much of this region is mountainous, and those mountains harbor unique ants that cannot be found in the deserts below. Camponotus laevissimus is one of these unique mountainous species, and can be found nesting in rotting logs at high elevations. Its striking look of a shiny exoskeleton and long white pubescence makes it easily separable from other Camponotus species. It also has a behavior I have yet to observe in other Camponotus. Similar to the stilt-tournaments of honeypot ants, alarmed individuals of Camponotus laevissimus will raise themselves up on their legs to seem larger. If you'd like to raise a colony of this intriguing ant species, you can find them at https://buckeyemyrmecology.com/product/camponotus-laevissimus/




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05/05/2025

Camponotus sansabeanus is a wide-ranging western species that can be found from Washington to Arkansas. The queens of some C. sansabeanus populations resemble those of Camponotus vicinus, making identification tricky for anyone who hasn't kept both species, the difference between the two becomes immediately obvious once workers arrive. C. vicinus workers are black and red, while those of C. sansabeanus are a striking yellow, similar to C. ocreatus or C. semitestaceus. Like all Camponotus in the Tanaemyrmex subgenus, C. sansabeanus has large and impressive majors, which typically have much darker heads than the minor workers. If you'd like to keep a colony of Camponotus sansabeanus, you can find them at https://buckeyemyrmecology.com/product/camponotus-sansabeanus/