Population biology of the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) associated with its invasiveness
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Yang, Chin-Cheng
Abstract
Invasive species are recognized as major threats to native biodiversity, public health, and agriculture, often resulting in considerable economic loss. The full understanding of species’ characteristics that potentially could be transformed to the factors underlying the invasion success may assist accurate prediction of invasion potential as well as development of control strategies. Many social insects, particularly ants, are well known as being damaging pests, and one of the most notorious invasive ant species is the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. Recent multiple successful invasions by this exotic pest into several continents raise the concern about its imminent worldwide spread from the existing populations. To understand the invasiveness of S. invicta, the present study explored several key components of this pest ant species including population genetics, social organization and patterns of release from natural enemies. Also, the global movement of this ant was constructed to ascertain whether particular routes of invasion are common. The combined results showed that (1) introduction of fire ant in Taiwan left a modest footprint on pattern of genetic structure, (2) the interaction in a complementary fashion between two distinct colony social forms, monogyne and polygyne, likely contribute to the invasion and subsequent spread of S. invicta in Taiwan, (3) the success of recently established S. invicta populations may result from decreased pressure from natural enemy species with strong fitness effects compared with those that are less detrimental, (4) the USA represents the most likely common source population of all recently introduced areas, and the current distribution of S. invicta worldwide results from at least nine independent introductions. Multiple analyses of a large amount of data on different aspects of S. invicta provide guidelines for understanding the success of this pest ant species, as well as provide crucial information for the development of appropriate management strategies and facilitate the complete picture of fire ant invasions.
Subjects
enemy release
genetic structure
invasion history
microsatellite:mitochondrial DNA
social organization
Solenopsis invicta
SDGs
Type
thesis
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-99-D95632004-1.pdf
Size
23.53 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):72cd9a24cdd2a324a832a0f35ee64684