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The Ants of North America - William and Emma Mackay,
Camponotus is one of the most difficult of the New World genera.
The morphological characters are difficult to define, and most
vary within a
species or species complex. Majors (or females) are usually
necessary for identification. The genus
currently has about 420 New World species, grouped into
several poorly
defined subgenera. Identification is difficult due to the
large size of the genus and the unreliable characters.
Thus we will make several small keys available over
the next few weeks, including area keys, keys to the species
complexes, and keys to the members of each complex.
The complete revision is also provided. Unfortunately it is
large (about 1550 pages) and may be difficult to download,
although most computer systems seem to be able to handle it.
It is too large to convert to a PDF file.
If you are unable to download the files, you can download a
key to your area. Please contact us if you need a CD.
The following preliminary keys are ready for testing,
and we would appreciate any comments:
- Southeastern United States (10/22/03).
- Caribbean (2/19/04).
- Mexico (Spanish) (4/1/04).
- Colombia (Spanish) (5/21/04).
- Ecuador and Peru (Spanish) (12/16/04).
- Venezuela, Guyanas, Trinidad and Tobago (Spanish) (12/16/04).
Centennial Museum, Laboratory for Environmental Biology,
The University of Texas, El Paso, TX 79968
Genus Camponotus
