Electrical stimulation of Solenopsis invicta to enhance phorid fly, Pseudacteon tricuspis, detection

An electrical stimulation device consisting of a modified livestock prod was tested for its ability to enhance detection of the phorid fly Pseudacteon tricuspis Borgmeier, a parasitoid of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren. At a site heavily infested with phorid flies in Burleson Co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Southwestern entomologist Vol. 30; no. 3; pp. 165 - 168
Main Authors Barr, C.L, Calixto, A.A
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.09.2005
Subjects
detection
electric current
electric livestock prod
electrical equipment
fire ant mounds
fire ants
Formicidae
host detection
host seeking
host-parasite relationships
insect colonies
mechanical disturbance
parasitoids
Phoridae
Pseudacteon
Pseudacteon tricuspis
Solenopsis invicta
Texas
USA, Texas
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Summary:An electrical stimulation device consisting of a modified livestock prod was tested for its ability to enhance detection of the phorid fly Pseudacteon tricuspis Borgmeier, a parasitoid of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren. At a site heavily infested with phorid flies in Burleson County, Texas, pairs of active fire ant colonies were disturbed simultaneously using the device with light mechanical disturbance on one mound and mechanical disturbance only on the other. Electrical stimulation proved much more effective than mechanical disturbance resulting in less than half the response time (108 seconds vs 271 seconds), more flies per mound (5.7 vs 0.55), and, most importantly, a detection rate of 100% versus only 27% (3 of 11 mounds) for mechanical disturbance.
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ISSN:0147-1724
2162-2647