Dissertation Research: Behavioral Responses of the Ant Pheidole Dentata to Parasitism by the Phorid Fly Apocephalus Feeneri

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Parasites draw nutrition directly from their hosts and adversely affect them inmany ways. Major workers in the ant species Pheidole dentata are susceptible toparasitism by the phorid fly Apocephalus feeneri. Parasitism by the phorid is fatal forthe parasitized ant and previous work has shown that foraging majors will try toconceal themselves when phorids are detected. In spite of this attempt to avoidparasitism, a small percentage of majors are successfully parasitized by phorids. Thegoal of this study is to examine changes of those parasitized majors by comparingtheir behavior to that of non-parasitized nestmates. Equal numbers of parasitized andnon-parasitized majors will be marked in a colony and their behaviors observed usingstandard ethogram techniques for the duration of the phorid's larval development.Frequencies and sequences of behaviors in parasitized and non-parasitized majorswill be compared. To highlight the effect of parasitism on the specialized defensiveresponse of P. dentata, parasitized majors will be exposed to fire ants in the genusSolenopsis. The outcome of these experiments will affect future ecological studieswith P. dentata and potentially bio-control efforts in other ant-phorid systems.