PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS OF PHORID FLY (PSEUDACTEON CURVATUS BORGMEIER) AND BLACK IMPORTED FIRE ANT (SOLENOPSIS RICHTERI FOREL) INTERACTIONS WITH HIGH-SPEED VIDEOGRAPHY)

Authors: FINK, TOM - UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI; GUI, LICHUAN - UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIP; Streett, Douglas; SEINER, JOHN - UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIP

Submitted to: Imported Fire Ants Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/23/2006
Publication Date: 9/11/2006
Citation: Fink, T., Gui, L., Streett, D.A., Seiner, J. 2006. Preliminary observations of phorid fly (Pseudacteon curvatus Borgmeier) and black imported fire ant (Solenopsis richteri Forel) interactions with high-speed videography). Imported Fire Ants Conference Proceedings. pg. 40-42.

Interpretive Summary: Imported fire ants are serious pests that infest 300 million acres in the United States and have an annual cost of approximately six billion dollars. Phorid flies are biological control agents that attack only imported fire ants and these flies are currently being released in the United States. High speed video recording were used to evaluate the flies attacking the ants and to measure the wingbeat frequency of the fire ants. The results of this work will benefit the researchers, and the public throughout the range of imported fire ants.

Technical Abstract: High-speed video recordings of phorid fly and fire ant interactions can easily be made in the field at field mounds. We successfully recorded flying phorid flies and walking fire ants at 10,000 frames per second. This was sufficient to allow later viewing of individual wingbeats of the phorid flies. We could track individual phorid flies for up to 10 seconds at 10,000 frames per second.