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blueball1st wrote:

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I think there's one who goes by the name forestant, and another who calls himself Aimayi, which literally means love ants. These are the two of the largest ant trading companies in China, but I believe that the name xiangban was originally invented by forestant. He's wrote a journal on how he found the species, I can translate it and repost it here, if you like.

blueball1st wrote:

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Okay, here goes:

Translation of Forest Ant's story of how he found and named Camponotus xiangban

Not long ago, in the Xishuang Banna Forest Reserve, I found an ant which I was most excited and delighted to see. The reason for my being excited was that it had been several months since I had last seen the ant in Menghai County, also in Xishaung Banna. I had been searching for it without success, but this time, I came across a colony, with workers with stout and hairy bodies and a strong aroma. Now that I have finally found it, I must say that I truly am most ecstatic. 

At that time, I was not only very excited of my discovery but I also felt very, very curious of this ant. I couldn’t wait to dig open its nest and see for myself their previously unknown lifestyles, and to hopefully find their queen. When I looked closely at the ant, I instinctively thought that it was probably a member of the genus Camponotus, but I didn’t know what species it was, so I gave it a name, ‘the aromatic spotted carpenter ant’, I called it. I named it so of the aroma it gave off and the two large yellow spots on its gaster. Naturally, I was most curious as to its scientific name, so I did quite a bit of research, which unfortunately yielded no results. I was almost desperate to know what this ant’s name was, and then, I suddenly had an idea, why not ask a professional (entomologist) for help? The first thing I did was to mail a specimen to Professor S.Y. Zhou of Guangxi Normal University, a famed entomologist in China who specialized in Myrmecology. When he first saw a photo of the ant, he told me that it was a species that seemed to be related to Camponotus wasmanni. Then I consulted Professor Xu Zhenghui of the Faculty of Conservation Biology of Southwest Forestry College in Kunming, who at once recognized the species as Polyrhachis pseudocamponotoni (bad translation, sorry), having come across the species in previous expeditions to Xishaung Banna. That time, he only collected minor workers but no majors. I did a little bit more research on the species and it confirmed Professor Xu’s conclusion.

Although I finally found the answer, I was not satisfied with it. It seemed to me that there was no way that this ant could be in the genus Polyrhachis, and, what’s more, this ant displayed polymorphism, a trait which is practically unheard of in Polyrhachis. Besides, the ant was a soil nester, another trait which rarely, if ever, appears in Polyrhachis. The only way in which the species resembled Polyrhachis were the two short spines on its thorax. I relayed my doubts to Professor Zhou, who upon further analysis of material, agreed with my viewpoint, that the ant was miscategorised and that it should belong to Camponotus instead.

After that, I went to Professor Xu again, who also agreed to this theory. He told me that he would make a revision of the species. At the same time, he concluded that the original describer of the species, Mr Ng, must have made a mistake as he only collected minor workers with short spines and consequently misidentified it as Polyrhachis, although he did recognize many characteristics of Camponotus ants in the species, as evidenced by his naming the species as Polyrhachis pseudocamponotoni (bad translation, sorry again). After this little episode, I gained more confidence in my skills in recognizing unknown species, and also, I thought that the taxonomy of ants in China is really outated and obsolete, with many mistakes even in research papers. Perhaps ants really are small and insignificant creatures that few ever notice, but they, too, have their own mysterious stories of life to tell.

The End

Sorry for the bad translation of the scientific names, I didn't really know what to do with them.