We tested the host specificity of Pseudacteon curvatus from Formosa, Argentina on North American colonies of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, and the native fire ants, S. geminata and S. xyloni. No-choice tests showed that P. curvatus hovered over all three species of fire ants. The total number of successful pupae produced in the trials was 535 in S. invicta, 56 in S. xyloni, and 0 in S. geminata. Paired preference tests showed that P. curvatus preferred to hover over S. invicta 77% of the time rather than S. xyloni and preferred S. invicta 87% of the time over S. geminata. Additional paired preference tests were done with red and black fire ants from Argentina against North American red and black imported fire ants. These paired preference tests showed that P. curvatus hovered over both U.S. S. invicta and Argentine S. invicta but they preferred U.S. S. invicta 67% of the time over Argentine S. richteri. These results demonstrate that this biotype of P. curvatus reared from North American red imported fire ants is highly specific to North American red imported fire ants rather than the native fire ants or black imported fire ants.
Species 1: Diptera Phoridae Pseudacteon curvatus (phorid fly)
Species 2: Hymenoptera Formicidae Solenopsis invicta (red imported fire ant)
Keywords: host preference, biological control
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