Camponotus

also known as carpenter ants, these are large ants indigenous to many forested parts of the world. They build nests on the soil or inside wood consisting of galleries chewed out with their mandibles, preferably in dead, damp wood.

Camponotus is an extremely large and complex, globally distributed genus. At present, more than 1000 species and nearly 500 subspecies belonging to 45 subgenera are described and it could well be the largest ant genus of all. The enormous species richness, high levels of intraspecific and geographic variation and polymorphism render the taxonomy of Camponotus one of the most complex and difficult.