Fungi Associated with<i>Solenopsis invicta</i>Buren (Red Imported Fire Ant, Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Mounds in Mississippi

Woolfolk, Sandra W.; Stokes, C. Elizabeth; Watson, C. E.; Baker, Gerald T.; Brown, Richard L.; Baird, Richard E.

doi:10.1656/058.015.0203

Cited by 5 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The adoption of pathogens for potential suppression of insect populations and further research into other potential biological control strategies have been documented [11][12][13]. Several survey studies aimed at identifying microbial associates of RIFA, such as bacteria, fungi, or virus, are available [2,4,[14][15][16][17][18][19]. However, there is a need to expand on the available data, as studies conducted in China are very limited.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Mound Soils Bacterial Community of the Red Imported Fire Ant, Solenopsis invicta across Guangdong Province of China

et al. 2023

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Soil microbes have a wide range of distribution across the world and can be found in different agricultural and forest systems including cultivated soils, ant mounds, decaying trees, leaves, roots, and on insect bodies. Across five counties of Guangdong province of China, the assemblage of bacterial associates of red imported fire ant (RIFA) were examined. The locations were selected based on evidence of high presence of RIFA mounds in these regions. Samples were analyzed from mound soils, plant debris within mounds, and the ant body. The current study analyzed bacterial species composition and richness patterns, where 525 isolates were recovered in total, comprising 44 bacterial taxa. Taxa abundance was highest in the ant body at 35 taxa, while the values were relatively similar across soil substrate and plant debris, where 3 and 6 taxa, respectively, were recorded. The highest bacterial taxa recovery rate was recorded in Guangzhou, where a total of 17 taxa were isolated. Myroides odoratimimus was the most common across all substrates and locations among the bacterial taxa. Others with the highest isolation frequencies includes, Enterobacter cloacae, Vagococcus fluvialis, and Myroides odoratus. The understanding of the bacterial community composition of RIFA is crucial for the development of successful management techniques for these notorious social ants. In order to expand on the findings of the current study, it is imperative to understand if the associated microbial communities of the RIFA form a parasitic, antagonistic, or mutualistic relationship with their host. In this vein, further studies would examine the influence of the characterized bacterial associates of the RIFA on the social behavior, physiology, and the host response to foreign pathogens.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Mound Soils Bacterial Community of the Red Imported Fire Ant, Solenopsis invicta across Guangdong Province of China

et al. 2023

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“…fungi isolated from soil or leaf litter near colonies, from colony refuse piles, or from ant fungal farms), nor do we include records where fungi have been isolated from ant external surfaces without indication of pathology. Interested readers are referred to Baird et al (Baird et al, 2007), Reber and Chapuisat (Reber & Chapuisat, 2012), Woolfolk et al (Woolfolk et al, 2016a) and references therein for surveys of fungi generally associated with ant colonies. We present our records of fungi known to infect ants in Table S2.…”

Section: Fungi As Pathogens and Parasites Of Antsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evans (Evans, 1974) notes: "Fungal pathogens of ants and other arthropods have been regularly collected from Ghanaian cocoa farms (H.C. Evans, unpublished) but epizootics are of infrequent occurrence and disease is at an enzootic level". Many fungi have been isolated from in and around ant colonies (Baird et al, 2007;Reber & Chapuisat, 2012;Angelone & Bidochka, 2018) and from ant internal tissues (Woolfolk et al, 2016a), often for the purposes of identifying potential biocontrol agents, but these have not been accompanied by any observations of colony collapse due to disease. Indeed, in a long-term study monitoring colonies infected by the behaviorally-manipulating fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis in the field, Loreto et al (Loreto et al, 2014) note that all 17 surveyed colonies continued to function over the 20-month observational period despite chronic infection by a fungal disease.…”

Section: Fungi As Pathogens and Parasites Of Antsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Generalist fungi in the family Trichocomaceae belonging to the genera Aspergillus, Neosartorya, Paecilomyces, Penicillium, and Petromyces have been recorded infecting ants. The majority of these records are for ants in the genera Solenopsis and Paratrechina, where targeted surveys have actively searched for fungal pathogens as potential use as biocontrol agents against these pestiferous genera (Rodrigues et al, 2010;Woolfolk et al, 2016a). Other ant genera infected include Formica and Atta.…”

Section: Trichocomaceae (Ascomycota: Order Eurotiales) [8 Records]mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For several of these records, the fungus was isolated from ant internal tissues in the absence of ants exhibiting any pathological symptoms (i.e. records within (Woolfolk et al, 2016a), so the morbidity and mortality caused by these fungi remains unknown. Other fungi within this family have been demonstrated to infect and kill their ant hosts (i.e.…”

Section: Trichocomaceae (Ascomycota: Order Eurotiales) [8 Records]mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pathogens, parasites, and parasitoids of ants: a synthesis of parasite biodiversity and epidemiological traits

Quevillon

Hughes

2018

Preprint

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1.AbstractAnts are among the most ecologically successful organisms on Earth, with a global distribution and diverse nesting and foraging ecologies. Ants are also social organisms, living in crowded, dense colonies that can range up to millions of individuals. Understanding the ecological success of the ants requires understanding how they have mitigated one of the major costs of social living-infection by parasitic organisms. Additionally, the ecological diversity of ants suggests that they may themselves harbor a diverse, and largely unknown, assemblage of parasites. As a first step, we need to know the taxonomic and functional diversity of the parasitic organisms infecting ants. To that end, we provide a comprehensive review of the parasitic organisms infecting ants by collecting all extant records. We synthesize major patterns in parasite ecology by categorizing how parasites encounter their ant hosts, whether they require host death as a developmental necessity, and how they transmit to future hosts.We report 1,415 records of parasitic organisms infecting ants, the majority of which come from order Diptera (34.8%), phylum Fungi (25.6%), and order Hymenoptera (25.1%). Most parasitic organisms infecting ants are parasitoids (89.6%), requiring the death of their host as developmental necessity and most initially encounter their hosts in the extranidal environment (68.6%). Importantly, though most parasitic organisms infecting ants only need a single host to complete their life cycle (89.2%), the vast majority need to leave the nest before transmission to the next ant host can occur (88.3%), precluding ant-to-ant transmission within the nest. With respect to the host, we only found records for 9 out of 17 extant ant sub-families, and for 82 out of the currently recognized 334 ant genera. Though there is likely bias in the records reported, both host and parasite ecological traits and evolutionary histories underlie the pattern of ant-parasite association reported here. This work provides a foundation for future work that will begin to untangle the ecological drivers of ant-parasite relationships and the evolutionary implications thereof.

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The application of entomopathogenic nematode modified microbial communities within nesting mounds of the red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta

Li,

Yi,

Chen

et al. 2024

Science of The Total Environment

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Fungi Associated withSolenopsis invictaBuren (Red Imported Fire Ant, Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Mounds in Mississippi

Cited by 5 publications

References 28 publications

Assessment of Mound Soils Bacterial Community of the Red Imported Fire Ant, Solenopsis invicta across Guangdong Province of China

Assessment of Mound Soils Bacterial Community of the Red Imported Fire Ant, Solenopsis invicta across Guangdong Province of China

Pathogens, parasites, and parasitoids of ants: a synthesis of parasite biodiversity and epidemiological traits

The application of entomopathogenic nematode modified microbial communities within nesting mounds of the red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta

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