Dietary Habits of<i>Solenopsis invicta</i>(Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Four Oklahoma Habitats

Vogt, James T.; Grantham, Richard; Corbett, Erica A.; Rice, Stanley A.; Wright, R. E.

doi:10.1603/0046-225x-31.1.47

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The only apparent cost of their smaller venom doses is a reduction in the strength of defense against vertebrate interference at food sources. However, considering S. invicta's generalist diet (Wilson and Oliver, 1969;Vogt et al, 2002), the cost of occasionally being driven from food finds by vertebrates is not likely to be high, and is likely to be outweighed by the benefits of career-extension for foragers who more commonly encounter arthropod competitors (which, due to their size, likely require lower doses than vertebrates to dispatch).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of venom synthesis and use in the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta

Haight

Tschinkel

2003

Toxicon

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In the life of the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, venom plays several important roles, including prey capture, defense, and antimicrobial action. Although this venom's chemistry, pharmacology, and effects on humans have been extensively studied, its patterns of synthesis and use have not. We determined the ability of different-aged workers to synthesize venom, and measured the amount of venom workers delivered per sting. Newly eclosed workers contained little or no venom in their reservoirs. The rate of synthesis was highest in workers aged 1 day after adult eclosion (1.17 mg venom/day for workers with headwidths of 1 mm), declined by 75% in workers aged 15 days (0.30 mg venom/day), and was negligible thereafter. Inducing ants to sting dummies as surrogates for humans, workers were found to deliver an average of 0.66 nl per sting, amounting to 3.1% of the average individual venom supply. Older workers (foragers) delivered less venom per sting than mid-age workers (reserves) and venom dose from nest-defenders was 55% higher in the spring than in the rest of the year. Thus, fire ant venom synthesis is limited to early life, and injected venom dose appears to be modulated. Economic explanations for the observed venom-use patterns are discussed. q

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of venom synthesis and use in the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta

Haight

Tschinkel

2003

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“…In the southeastern United States, the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) is responsible for significant ecological, health, and economic impacts (Tschinkel 2006). Solenopsis invicta is a carnivorous ant that primarily consumes animal tissue and haemolymph and has a d 15 N stable isotope signature similar to that of obligate predators, such as spiders (Tennant and Porter 1991, Vogt et al 2002, Tillberg et al 2007). However, S. invicta also frequently forms mutualisms with honeydew-producing hemipterans in their introduced range (Helms and Vinson 2002) and these interactions influence how S. invicta affects arthropod food webs (Kaplan and Eubanks 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macronutrient content of plant-based food affects growth of a carnivorous arthropod

Wilder

Holway

Suarez

et al. 2011

Ecology

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Many arthropods engage in mutualisms in which they consume plant-based foods including nectar, extrafloral nectar, and honeydew. However, relatively little is known about the manner in which the specific macronutrients in these plant-based resources affect growth, especially for carnivorous arthropods. Using a combination of laboratory and field experiments, we tested (1) how plant-based foods, together with ad libitum insect prey, affect the growth of a carnivorous ant, Solenopsis invicta, and (2) which macronutrients in these resources (i.e., carbohydrates, amino acids, or both) contribute to higher colony growth. Access to honeydew increased the production of workers and brood in experimental colonies. This growth effect appeared to be due to carbohydrates alone as colonies provided with the carbohydrate component of artificial extrafloral nectar had greater worker and brood production compared to colonies deprived of carbohydrates. Surprisingly, amino acids only had a slight interactive effect on the proportion of a colony composed of brood and negatively affected worker survival. Diet choice in the laboratory and field matched performance in the laboratory with high recruitment to carbohydrate baits and only slight recruitment to amino acids. The strong, positive effects of carbohydrates on colony growth and the low cost of producing this macronutrient for plants and hemipterans may have aided the evolution of food-for-protection mutualisms and help explain why these interactions are so common in ants. In addition, greater access to plant-based resources in the introduced range of S. invicta may help to explain the high densities achieved by this species throughout the southeastern United States.

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“…They may forage by day or night [5,66], as long as the soil temperature is at least 15 • C [10,11]. Solenopsis fire ants are omnivorous, with a very catholic diet [67,68]. They excavate elaborate underground tunnel systems [69], and some unknown proportion of their food may be derived from underground sources (i.e., plant roots or root homopterans) [67].…”

Section: Host Ant Refuges and Behavioral Adaptationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological Control ofSolenopsisFire Ants byPseudacteonParasitoids: Theory and Practice

Morrison

2012

Psyche: A Journal of Entomology

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Pseudacteonparasitoids are potential biocontrol agents of invasiveSolenopsisfire ants.Pseudacteonspecies that parasitize the invasiveS. invictaBuren andS. richteriForel have been introduced to, and naturally dispersed across, the southeastern USA, although there is no evidence yet thatSolenopsishost ant populations have decreased. The ability of introducedPseudacteonspecies to regulateSolenopsispopulations will depend upon the relative importance of top-down effects in the recipient communities. In this paper, I examine the characteristics of thePseudacteon/Solenopsisparasitoid/host system and evaluate the extent to which research findings are consistent with top-down control. Laboratory and field experiments evaluatingSolenopsispopulation regulation have been equivocal, and overall the available evidence provides little support for strong top-down effects in this system. Competitive exclusion may occur among introducedPseudacteonspecies, and future efforts at biological control are likely to be more efficacious if they focus on other types of natural enemies.

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Dietary Habits ofSolenopsis invicta(Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Four Oklahoma Habitats

Cited by 16 publications

References 19 publications

Patterns of venom synthesis and use in the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta

Patterns of venom synthesis and use in the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta

Macronutrient content of plant-based food affects growth of a carnivorous arthropod

Biological Control ofSolenopsisFire Ants byPseudacteonParasitoids: Theory and Practice

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