Food Habits of a Japanese Carpenter Ant, Camponotus (Myrmamblys) nawai ITO (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

The food habits of a Japanese carpenter ant, Camponotus (Myrmamblys) nawai, was studied with captive colonies under semi-natural and laboratory conditions. This species is rather strictly diurnal in foraging activity. More than half the returning ants were replete, while those carrying solid particles accounted for only around 5%. A large part (>60%) of the load was not known of their origin. Identified food included ants, aphids, flies and spiders, all of which were dead. Crop contents induced both sugar and protein reactions on urine test paper. These and other observations suggest that this species gathers honeydew as energy source and sucks insect body fluid as protein source as well as solid food. Recruitment was observed in experiments using wounded mealworms as baits. The present results suggest that this species usually forages solitarily in the daytime and recruitment occasionally occurs in limited situations.