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16 August 2019 Metastriate Ixodid Life Stages Protected from Predatory Ants in Texas
Allan T. Showler, Weste L. A. Osbrink, Bailee N. Dorsey, Ryan M. Caesar
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Abstract

Multiple predatory ant species, including the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta (Buren) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), have been reported to attack ixodids (Ixodida: Ixodidae), but evidence has largely been circumstantial. When living lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum (L.) (Acarina: Ixodidae), eggs, and unfed and blood-engorged larvae, nymphs, and adults were deployed on bait transects with hot dog slices and dead house flies, Musca domestica L., in West, Central, and South Texas. The various ixodid life stages were not attacked while ants were strongly recruited to the hot dog and M. domestica baits. Similarly, when the same ixodid life stages and other baits were placed adjacent to colonies of two ant species (red harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex barbatus (Smith) and the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren) the ixodids were not preyed upon while hot dog slices and dead M. domestica were immediately attacked. Some ant species dragged blood-engorged adult ixodids and eggs away from the colony entrance, where they were originally placed, and discarded them. Evidence and mechanisms for allomone-based ant deterrence in the genera Amblyomma, Dermacentor, and Rhipicephalus (metastriate ixodids) are discussed. Protection of ixodids from predatory ants helps to explain why metastriate ixodids remain problematic worldwide despite the presence of predaceous ants.

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America 2019. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.
Allan T. Showler, Weste L. A. Osbrink, Bailee N. Dorsey, and Ryan M. Caesar "Metastriate Ixodid Life Stages Protected from Predatory Ants in Texas," Environmental Entomology 48(5), 1063-1070, (16 August 2019). https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvz097
Received: 6 May 2019; Accepted: 17 July 2019; Published: 16 August 2019
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KEYWORDS
allomone
Amblyomma americanum
defense
lone star tick
Rhipicephalus microplus
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