Camponotus is the genus (all carpenter ants are in this genus), pennsylvanicus is the species, and (DeGeer) is the author who originally described this species.
The more important of these include Subfamily, Tribe, Subgenus and Subspecies. All ants belong to a single family, Formicidae. Within the ants, only three categories are commonly used, subfamily, genus and species. Subfamily is the largest grouping, and determining which subfamily a specimen belongs to is the first step in any identification. A genus is a scientific way of showing that species are very closed related to each other. In fact the first word of the species' scientific name is its genus. So for lions (Panthera leo), Panthera is the genus and tells us that they are closely related to tigers (Panthera tigris), because they share the name. The category below subfamily is genus. (Tribe is between subfamily and genus but is only used in selected groups.) There are about 300 genera of ants world-wide and about 100 of these are found in Australia (see List of Genera). This is one of the most species-rich ant genera, with perhaps 1000 species World-wide. Most subgenus Myrmentoma and all Colobopsis are strictly arboreal, while most Tanaemyrmex and some others nest in soil. Atta Laevigata. Atta laevigata is one of about a dozen species of leafcutter ants in the genus Atta, found from Colombia south to Paraguay. This species is one of the largest leafcutter species, and can be recognized by the smooth and shining head of the largest workers in a colony. For example the scientific name of the black carpenter ant is Camponotus pennsylvanicus (DeGeer). In this case, Camponotus is the genus (all carpenter ants are in this genus), pennsylvanicus is the species, and (DeGeer) is the author who originally described this species. The parentheses indicate that the species was originally described in another genus, but was later moved to the current one. Throughout the world, there are over 12,000 species of ants. Some of the most common ant species in the United States are the Argentine, Odorous House, Carpenter, Fire, Pavement, and Pharaoh Ants.
http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Classification_of_Ants http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/genus http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Classification_of_Ants http://bugguide.net/node/view/354 http://www.antstuff.net/html/species_of_ants.html http://mississippientomologicalmuseum.org.msstate.edu/Researchtaxapages/Formicidaehome.html https://www.combatbugs.com/ant-identifier
what is the genus and species of ant