Description of five new weaver ant species of Camponotus subgenus Karavaievia EMERY, 1925 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Malaysia and Thailand, with contribution to their biology, especially to colony foundation

Five new species of Camponotus (Karavaievia) are described (workers and gynes of all species, male of C. weissflogi): Camponotus (Karavaievia) aureus DUMPERT sp.n., C. (K.) hoelldobleri DUMPERT sp.n., C. (K.) maschwitzi DUMPERT sp.n., C. (K.) schoedli DUMPERT sp.n., and C. (K.) weissflogi DUMPERT sp.n. A key is provided for determination of all the hitherto known 18 species of the subgenus Karavaievia.

As far as known, all Karavaievia species are weaver ants, producing multiple carton-silk pavilions beneath or between leaves of woody plants. All pavilions of the populous monogynous colonies contain brood and trophobiotic hemipterans. Colonies of this type of nests can only exist on plants that do not shed their foliage synchronously and frequently, i.e., on plants predominantly found in the perhumid zone. Correspondingly, most species have been recorded only from evergreen rainforests of Southeast Asia. Only few live further northwards in the semi-evergreen Dipterocarp rain-forests. Colony founding queens of two species were found within nest pavilions of a canopy-living Monomorium spe-cies. This indicates a mode of dependent colony foundation within pavilions of carton nest building canopy ants. Pos-sible consequences of this mode of colony-foundation for rareness and diversification of Karavaievia are discussed.