Disruption of Cotton Aphid (Homoptera: Aphididae)—Natural Enemy Dynamics by Red Imported Fire Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

By I. Kaplan, M. Eubanks. 2002

137 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta (Buren) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), are an invasive species found in high densities throughout southeastern agricultural systems. We tested the hypothesis that fire ants tend cotton aphids, Aphis gossypii Glover (Homoptera: Aphididae), and thus release them from predation by lady beetle larvae, Coccinella septempunctata L. and Hippodamia convergens Guerin-Meneville (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), and green lacewing larvae, Chrysoperla carnea Stephens (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae). Fire ants preferentially foraged on aphid-infested cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., plants (x̄ = 103 ± 47 ants per plant) compared with plants without aphids (x̄ = 5 ± 3 ants per plant). In caged greenhouse experiments, fire ants reduced survival of lady beetle larvae by 92.9% and green lacewing larvae by 83.3%. Furthermore, strong mortality imposed on aphid predators by fire ants affected aphid survival. With the addition of fire ants to aphid-predator treatments, aphid survival approximately doubled. In a field experiment, predator larvae were more abundant in cotton plots with experimentally suppressed densities of fire ants (0.62 ± 0.11 lady beetle larvae per sample; 0.06 ± 0.02 lacewing larvae per sample) than in plots with high fire ant densities (0.23 ± 0.06 lady beetle larvae per sample; 0.01 ± 0.01 lacewing larvae per sample). Conversely, cotton aphids were more abundant in high fire ant density field plots (x̄ = 6.83 ± 0.03 aphids per leaf) than in low fire ant density plots (x̄ = 4.04 ± 0.03 aphids per leaf). These data suggest that red imported fire ants enhance cotton aphid survival and density in the field through predator interference.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Genetics, Insect Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7ea54d4c49f5e35424cac9dd66e5514fb36d3441

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

1. I. Kaplan
2. M. Eubanks
3. J. Bronstein
4. J. Ness
5. Martin Heil
6. W. E. Snyder
7. Lori Lach

In Genetics

1. I. Kaplan
2. J. Bronstein
3. J. Ness
4. M. Eubanks
5. Martin Heil
6. W. E. Snyder
7. Lori Lach

In Insect Science

1. I. Kaplan
2. J. Bronstein
3. J. Ness
4. M. Eubanks
5. W. E. Snyder

Citations in the corpus

• The Effects of Invasive Ants on Prospective Ant Mutualists (2004, background): “…(L. humile: Bartlett 1961; P. megacephala: Cudjoe et al. 1993; Reimer et al. 1993; Gonzalez-Hernandez et al. 1999; S. invicta: Vinson and Scarborough 1989; Tedders et al. 1990; Dutcher et al. 1999, Eubanks 2001; Michaud and Browning 1999; Kaplan and Eubanks 2002; but see Clarke and DeBarr 1996).”
• APHIDS ALTER THE COMMUNITY‐WIDE IMPACT OF FIRE ANTS (2005, methodology): “Plants were placed individually in cages with potting soil and field-collected colonies of fire ants (;500 ants per cage) were given access to cages using foraging tunnels (see Kaplan and Eubanks 2002 for details of cage design).”