Paving Behavior in Ants and Its Potential Application in Monitoring Two Urban Pest Ants, Solenopsis invicta and Tapinoma melanocephalum.

ABSTRACT: Our previous study discovered that two urban pest ants, red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Formicidae: Myrmicinae), and ghost ants, Tapinoma melanocephalum (Fabricius) (Formicidae: Dolichoderinae), can pave viscose surfaces with particles to facilitate food search and transport. We hypothesize that this paving behavior can be applied to monitor S. invicta and T. melanocephalum. In the present study, 3998 adhesive tapes, each with a food source (sausage), were placed in 20 locations around Guangzhou, China (181-224 tapes per location), and their efficiency to detect S. invicta and T. melanocephalum was compared with two traditional ant-monitoring methods, baiting and pitfall trapping. Overall, S. invicta was detected by 45.6% a

SUBMITTER: Shen L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10054563 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature