Post AuTW1h8DImA0S0GTMu by benchase@ohai.social
 (DIR) More posts by benchase@ohai.social
 (DIR) Post #AuShMfAsg4oinfkmHY by alexwild@mastodon.online
       2025-05-25T19:08:23Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       If you are starting to learn ants, this should be your first genus: Camponotus. They are found everywhere in the world, there are a lot of ecologically important species, and you'll always have a point of familiarity in any fauna.The genus includes North America's common carpenter ants.#Ants #Photography #Insects #Camponotus https://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Taxonomic-List-of-Ant-Genera/Camponotus
       
 (DIR) Post #AuShSQhrNmJvfKveka by futurebird@sauropods.win
       2025-05-25T19:19:13Z
       
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       @alexwild And you can almost always let them crawl on your hand without a problem. (wracking my brain to think of a single even slightly dangerous campo)
       
 (DIR) Post #AuShi3xzhDzNlyvivg by futurebird@sauropods.win
       2025-05-25T19:22:00Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       @alexwild Kate Moss looking anthttps://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Taxonomic-List-of-Ant-Genera/Camponotus/i-53bRxhg/A
       
 (DIR) Post #AuSv0SQylR1wH3aaES by barrygoldman1@sauropods.win
       2025-05-25T21:51:02Z
       
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       @futurebird @alexwild haha!  dangerous campos!  once i was rutting around in a log full of campos and using my ant pooter and got a lungful of formic acid.  very effective, you little ants!
       
 (DIR) Post #AuSvW7YztcpAoNRClM by futurebird@sauropods.win
       2025-05-25T21:56:45Z
       
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       @alexwild I often wonder if this genus ought to be broken up more. Although it does make it easy to identify the genus of MANY ants correctly if you just look for the shape of their thorax. IDK... I look at Camponotus mirabilis and feel uncomfortable.
       
 (DIR) Post #AuSxf1QkGgHsIwwxto by alexwild@mastodon.online
       2025-05-25T22:20:45Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @futurebird It could, like Pheidole, be broken up. But the trouble is that there is so much convergence among different lineages that the ways of dividing them up that also preserve the integrity of evolutionary lineages would render the new genera quite hard to identify.
       
 (DIR) Post #AuTW1h8DImA0S0GTMu by benchase@ohai.social
       2025-05-26T04:45:48Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @futurebird @alexwild Is the criterion “will bite”, “will sting”, or “is dangerous”?  Wondering if C. Floridanus meets any of those.