The body color ranges from yellow or light brown to reddish. The thief ant has two nodes and is similar in color but has ten antennal segments, with a two segmented club. Pharaohs ants do not appear to nest outside. Pharaohs ant showing the three segmented club and the two nodes on the pedicel. There are several species of this ant in the state and most people are probably familiar with the large black carpenter ant, Camponotus pennsylvanicus.
All carpenter ants have one node, and the top line of the thorax is very even.
Compare the area in Fig. Notice the uninterrupted nature of this line in the carpenter ant vs. the pharaohs ant. Carpenter ant color will vary with the species. It will vary from solid black to a reddish color or mixtures of red and black. The one in Fig.