This item is one of the news releases and story leads that ARS Information
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----------
From: "ARS News Service"
To: "ARS News List"
Subject: Parasitic Ants May Debilitate Fire Ants
Date: Mon, Dec 11, 2000, 6:44 AM
STORY LEAD:
Parasitic Ants May Debilitate Fire Ants
___________________________________________
ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Jes=FAs Garc??a, (301) 504-1627, jgarcia@ars.usda.gov
December 11, 2000
___________________________________________
Agriculture Research Service scientists have confirmed that a parasitic ant
that helps control fire ants in Argentina could help curb the spread of fir=
e
ants in the southern United States.
The destructive red fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, now infests more than 300
million acres in 12 states throughout the South and Puerto Rico. It is
thought to have arrived in the soil of potted plants or in the water ballas=
t
tanks of ships from South America in the 1920s. It has since become well
established, threatening a variety of wildlife, damaging electrical systems
and causing a nuisance to people.
Researchers at ARS' South American Biological Control Laboratory in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, report that the parasitic ant Solenopsis daguerrei
habitually lives in the nests of fire ants. Like one queen usurping another
in a palace coup, the parasitic queen--or sometimes virgin females--attach
themselves to the S. invicta queen and divert resources from her. This
parasitic behavior is so well disguised that the fire ant workers care for
the imposter queen and her brood as if they were their own. Eventually, the
fire ant queen becomes unable to produce eggs, and the colony dies.
This suggests that S. daguerrei might be an effective form of biological
control for fire ants in the United States. But first, researchers must
complete field host-range studies under way in Argentina to confirm its
host-specificity. If it is found to exclusively parasitize fire ant species=
,
this will affirm its viability as a possible biological control for red fir=
e
ants.
So far, researchers sampled a total of 4,316 mostly fire ant colonies in
Argentina. S. daguerrei was found to exclusively inhabit 161 of the fire an=
t
colonies. This preliminary data confirms that S. daguerrei does appear to b=
e
host-specific to the fire ant genus Solenopsis. ARS researchers in
Gainesville, Fla., are currently studying the parasitic ant under quarantin=
e
safeguards.
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.
___________________________________________
Scientific contact: Juan Briano, ARS South American Biological Control
Laboratory, Buenos Aires, Argentina, phone 54-11-4662-0999, fax ext. 104,
jabriano@mail.retina.ar.
___________________________________________
This item is one of the news releases and story leads that ARS Information
distributes on weekdays to fax and e-mail subscribers. You can also get the
latest ARS news on the World Wide Web at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/thelatest.htm.
* Feedback and questions to ARS News Service via e-mail: isnv@ars-grin.gov.
* ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD
20705-5128, (301) 504- 1617, fax (301) 504-1648.
