Carpenter ant
Carpenter ants are a genus of ants in the subfamily Formicinae found nearly worldwide except in Antarctica and a few islands. The genus is the most species-rich genus of ants in terms of described species, comprising over 1,500 described species as of 2025. Although they are commonly referred to as carpenter ants, only a few members, mostly in the subgenera Camponotus and Myrmentoma, nest in wood.
True carpenter ants build nests inside wood, consisting of galleries chewed out with their mandibles or jaws, preferably in dead, damp wood. However, unlike termites, they do not consume wood, but instead discard a material that resembles sawdust outside their nest. Sometimes, carpenter ants hollow out sections of trees. They also commonly infest wooden buildings and structures, causing a widespread problem: they are a major cause of structural damage. Nevertheless, their ability to excavate wood helps in forest decomposition. The genus includes over 1,000 species. They also farm aphids. In their farming, the ants protect the aphids from predators while they excrete a sugary fluid called honeydew, which the ants get by stroking the aphids with their antennae.
Description
Carpenter ants are generally large ants: workers are usually 4–7 mm long in small species and 7–13 mm in large species, queens are 9–20 mm long and males are 5–13 mm long. The bases of the antennae are separated from the clypeal border by a distance of at least the antennal scape's maximum diameter. The mesosoma in profile usually forms a continuous curve from the pronotum through to the propodeum.Phylogeny
For a period, Colobopsis was considered a subgenus of Camponotus. A 2015 phylogenomic study found it to be the sister group to all the remaining Camponotini. Consequently, since 2016, Colobopsis has been treated as a separate genus again.Habitat
Carpenter ant species reside both outdoors and indoors in moist, decaying, or hollow wood, most commonly in forest environments. They cut "galleries" into the wood grain to provide passageways to allow for movement between different sections of the nest. Certain parts of a house, such as around and under windows, roof eaves, decks and porches, are more likely to be infested by carpenter ants because these areas are most vulnerable to moisture.Carpenter ants have been known to construct extensive underground tunneling systems. These systems often end at some food source – often aphid colonies, where the ants extract and feed on honeydew. These tunneling systems also often exist in trees. The colonies typically include a central "parent" colony surrounded and supplemented by smaller satellite colonies.
Food
Carpenter ants are considered both predators and scavengers. These ants are foragers that typically eat parts of other dead insects or substances derived from other insects. Common foods for them include insect parts, "honeydew" produced by aphids, and extrafloral nectar from plants. They are also known for eating other sugary liquids such as honey, syrup, or juices and engaging in trophallaxis. Carpenter ants can increase the survivability of aphids when they tend them.Most species of carpenter ants forage at night. When foraging, they usually collect and consume dead insects. Some species less commonly collect live insects. When they discover a dead insect, workers surround it and extract its body fluids to be carried back to the nest. The remaining chitin-based shell is left behind. Occasionally, the ants bring the chitinous head of the insect back to the nest, where they also extract its inner tissue. The ants can forage individually or in small or large groups, though they often opt to do so individually. Different colonies in close proximity may have overlapping foraging regions, although they typically do not assist each other in foraging. Their main food sources normally include proteins and carbohydrates.
Instances of carpenter ants bleeding Chinese elm trees for the sap have been observed in northern Arizona. These instances may be rare, as the colonies vastly exceeded the typical size of carpenter ant colonies elsewhere.
When workers find food sources, they communicate this information to the rest of the nest. They use biochemical pheromones to mark the shortest path that can be taken from the nest to the source. When a sizable number of workers follows this trail, the strength of the cue increases and a foraging trail is established. This ends when the food source is depleted. The workers will then feed the queen and the larvae by consuming the food they have found, and regurgitating the food at the nest. Foraging trails can be either under or above ground.
Although carpenter ants do not tend to be extremely aggressive, they have developed mechanisms to maximize what they take from a food source when that same food source is also visited by competing organisms. This is accomplished in different ways. Sometimes they colonize an area near a relatively static food supply. More often, they develop a systemic way to visit the food source, with alternating trips by different individual ants or groups. This allows them to decrease the gains of intruders because the intruders tend to visit in a scattered, random, and unorganized manner. The ants, however, visit the sources systematically so that they reduce the average crop remaining. They tend to visit more resource-dense food areas in an attempt to minimize resource availability for others. That is, the more systematic the foraging behavior of the ants, the more random that of its competitors.
Contrary to popular belief, carpenter ants do not actually eat wood, as they are unable to digest cellulose. They only create tunnels and nests within it.
Some carpenter ant species can obtain nitrogen by feeding on urine or urine-stained sand. This may be beneficial in nitrogen-limited environments.
Symbionts
All ants in this genus, and some related genera, possess an obligate bacterial endosymbiont called Blochmannia. This bacterium has a small genome, and retains genes to biosynthesize essential amino acids and other nutrients. This suggests the bacterium plays a role in ant nutrition. Many Camponotus species are also infected with Wolbachia, another endosymbiont that is widespread across insect groups. Wolbachia is associated with the nurse cells in the queen's ovaries in the species Camponotus textor, which results in the worker larva being infected.Behavior and ecology
Nesting
Carpenter ants work to build the nests that house eggs in environments with usually high humidity due to their sensitivity to environmental humidity. These nests are called primary nests. Satellite nests are constructed once the primary nest is established and has begun to mature. Residents of satellite nests include older larvae, pupae, and some winged individuals, such as male ants, or future queen ants. Only eggs, the newly hatched larvae, workers, and the queen reside in the primary nests. As satellite nests do not have environmentally sensitive eggs, the ants can construct them in rather diverse locations that can actually be relatively dry. Some species, like Camponotus vagus, build the nest in a dry place, usually in wood.Nuptial flight
When conditions are warm and humid, winged males and females participate in a nuptial flight. They emerge from their satellite nests and females mate with a number of males while in flight. The males die after mating. These newly fertilized queens discard their wings and search for new areas to establish primary nests. The queens build new nests and deposit around 20 eggs, nurturing them as they grow until worker ants emerge. The worker ants eventually assist her in caring for the brood as she lays more eggs. After a few years, reproductive winged ants are born, allowing for the making of new colonies. Again, satellite nests will be established and the process will repeat itself.Relatedness
is the probability that a gene in one individual is an identical copy, by descent, of a gene in another individual. It is essentially a measure of how closely related two individuals are with respect to a gene. It is quantified by the coefficient of relatedness, which is a number between zero and one. The larger the value, the more two individuals are "related". Carpenter ants are social hymenopteran insects. This means the relatedness between offspring and parents is disproportionate. Females are more closely related to their sisters than they are to their offspring. Between full sisters, the coefficient of relatedness is r > 0.75. Between parent and offspring, the coefficient of relatedness is r = 0.5, because, given the event in meiosis, a certain gene has a 50% chance of being passed on to the offspring.Genetic diversity
insects tend to present low genetic diversity within colonies, which can increase with the co-occurrence of multiple queens or with multiple mating by a single queen. Distinct reproductive strategies may generate similar patterns of genetic diversity in ants.Kin recognition
According to Hamilton's rule for relatedness, for relative-specific interactions to occur, such as kin altruism, a high level of relatedness is necessary between two individuals. Carpenter ants, like many social insect species, have mechanisms by which individuals determine whether others are nestmates or not. They are useful because they explain the presence or absence of altruistic behavior between individuals. They also act as evolutionary strategies to help prevent incest and promote kin selection. Social carpenter ants recognize their kin in many ways. These methods of recognition are largely chemical in nature, and include environmental odors, pheromones, "transferable labels", and labels from the queen that are distributed to and among nest members. Because they have a chemical basis for emission and recognition, odors are useful because many ants can detect such changes in their environment through their antennae.The process of recognition for carpenter ants requires two events. First, a cue must be present on a "donor animal". These cues are called "labels". Next, the receiving animal must be able to recognize and process the cue. In order for an individual carpenter ant to be recognized as a nestmate, it must, as an adult, go through specific interactions with older members of the nest. This process is also necessary in order for the ant to recognize and distinguish other individuals. If these interactions do not occur in the beginning of adult life, the ant will be unable to be distinguished as a nestmate and unable to distinguish nestmates.