Red Imported Fire Ant (RIFA), Solenopsis invicta, predation upon karst invertebrate communities in central Texas has been previously reported in studies by Elliott, Reddell and Cokendolpher. We are conducting a year-long study of six caves to quantify aspects of this phenomenon. The study sites are at Fort Hood (Bell and Coryell counties, Texas), near the northern limit of the Edwards Plateau, where caves harbor a variety of troglobitic macroinvertebrates - including several narrowly endemic taxa. Above ground, we use timed bait censusing to measure RIFA foraging activity on a grid of points centered over cave entrances and conduct mound counts within the study plots. Inside the caves, timed RIFA bait traps are placed along an in-cave transect. Visual censusing in a 0.1 m2 quadrate frame quantifies diversity and abundance of cavernicoles along the in-cave transect. Preliminary results corroborate earlier observations in that RIFA mound density and foraging activity are higher at disturbed, open sites.
Species 1: Hymenoptera Formicidae Solenopsis invicta (red imported fire ant, fire ant)
Species 2: Orthoptera Rhaphidophoridae Ceuthophilus secretus (cave cricket)
Keywords: conservation, speleology
Back to Display Presentations, Subsection Cd. Behavior and Ecology
Back to Posters
Back to The 2002 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition