Ecologia da interação entre formigas invasoras e moscas parasitoides

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2002

RESUMO

The establishment of exotic species is an important disturbing factor of native community. The knowledge of the ecology of these invading species in their native range is fundamental to handle effectively the problem. The red fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, and the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile (Mayr), are invading species in many places, bringing ecological and economicalloss. In Brazil, their native place, they have parasitoids (Diptera: Phoridae) which are absent in places where these ants were introduced. These natural enemies are able to diminish the competitive ability of their host ants. Investigating nine locations in four states of Brazil, we found parasitoid flies attacking fire ants mainly in disturbed mounds and recruitment trails. We found a total of 11 Pseudacteon parasitoid species, six of them exclusively associated to S. invicta, four to S. saevissima F. Smith and one to both ofthem. None ofthe studied places had more than five species of Pseudacteon. The simpatric parasitoid species almost always had different ecological characteristics: strategy to search host ant (in recruitment trai I or disturbed mound) or attacking host ants with different sizes. On the other hand, Linepithema spp., which have monomorfic workers in foraging trails as the only attack opportunity to parasitic flies, had just one Pseudacteon species at each place associated to. Adding strong evidences of competition among parasitoids, we concluded that resource partitioning is important to structure Pseudacteon communities. Therefore, multiple species introduction may be the best biological control strategy. Furthermore, since the deforested areas are S. invicta success requirement, we need to adopt a wider management strategy, including forests protection

ASSUNTO(S)

formiga mosca ecologia partilha de recursos (ecologia)

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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