Camponotus (Myrmosericus) parius Emery, 1889

Material examined. Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (NUS), 29 Mar 2018, W.Wang leg., WW-SG18- Campo 1, ZRC _ ENT00000919; MacRitchie Catchment Reservoir, 20 Apr 1994, collector unknown, NS 123B, ZRC _ HYM_0000109; MacRitchie Reservoir, 6 Jan 2014, Sk. Yamane leg., ZRC _HYM_0000404; Upper Peirce Reservoir, 10 Jan 2014, Sk. Yamane leg. (SKYC); Pulau Ubin, 7 Jan 2014, Sk. Yamane leg., ZRC _HYM_0000405; Choa Chu Kang Avenue 2, Block 273, 1 Mar 2017, D.J. Court leg., ZRC _HYM_0001723; University Hall (NUS), 1.297111, 103.776583, 12-19 Aug 2015, M.S. Foo & W. Wang leg., malaise trap, NUS0084, ZRC _ BDP0047532; Prince George’s Park Residences (NUS), 1.292389, 103.778694, 8-15 Jul 2015, M.S. Foo & W. Wang leg., malaise trap, NUS0061, ZRC _ BDP0045928; same locality as previous, 1-8 Sep 2015, M.S. Foo & W. Wang leg., malaise trap, NUS0093, ZRC _ BDP0047461; Pulau Tekukor, 9 Dec 2016, G.W. Yong leg., ZRC _ ENT00027978; St. John’s Island, 1.220167, 103.847472, 11 May 2016, J.S. Ascher et al. leg., ZRC _ ENT00047855; City Hall, 29 Jul 2014, J.K. Wetterer leg., ZRC _ ENT00054652; Outram Park, same collector and date as previous, ZRC _ ENT00054653; Serangoon, 30 Jul 2014, same collector as previous, ZRC _ ENT00054654; Marine Parade, 1 Aug 2014, same collector as previous, ZRC _ ENT00054655; Kranji, 2 Aug 2014, same collector as previous, ZRC _ ENT00054656; Singapore Botanic Gardens, 5 Aug 2014, same collector as previous, ZRC _ ENT00054659; Pasir Panjang, same collector and date as previous, ZRC _ ENT00054660 .

Material not physically examined. Unknown.

Literature. Wang et al. (2018a) [misidentified as Camponotus rufoglaucus].

Localities. Choa Chu Kang Avenue 2; City Hall; Kranji; National University of Singapore (Kent Ridge/Clementi campus); MacRitchie Reservoir; Marine Parade; Outram Park; Pasir Panjang; Pulau Tekukor; Pulau Ubin; Serangoon; Singapore Botanic Gardens; St. John’s Island; Upper Peirce Reservoir.

Habitat/Ecology. This species is often associated with young secondary habitat in Singapore, also commonly observed close to human infrastructure in urban or semi-urban settings. Nests were typically seen in soil in cultivated grassland or grass patches near roadside trees. Colony presence is often conspicuous with narrow nest entrance usually surrounded by a relatively (much) wider outer ring of sandy soil.

Remarks. Often mistaken for the other more well-known black Camponotus species — C. auriventris, C. parius can be distinguished from the latter mainly by the absence of a deep metanotal groove (in C. auriventris the metanotal groove is visible as a deep indentation between mesonotum and propodeum in lateral view), also a smoother sculpture with fine whitish pubescence.

Camponotus parius also closely resembles C. rufoglaucus in general habitus. Workers of the two species can be differentiated by colour – C. parius is almost entirely uniformly black, while C. rufoglaucus is typically black with varying amounts of reddish-brown. Body colour, however, might be unreliable because of the broad variation apparent in the latter species. The species may also be distinguished based on condition of standing pilosity. In C. parius workers, standing hairs on entire dorsum are sparse, laterally-projecting hairs almost absent along sides of head in full-face view except in anterior portion closer to mandibular base. In contrast, C. rufoglaucus workers have denser and more numerous standing hairs on entire dorsum, especially the mesosoma; in full-face view, sides of head lined with many laterally-projecting hairs.