caa a22 4500 397546351 CHVBK 20180308164739.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161202e19960701xx s 000 0 eng 10.1093/aesa/89.4.535 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)oxford-10.1093/aesa/89.4.535 Comparison of Polygyne and Monogyne Red Imported Fire Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Population Densities [Elektronische Daten] [Thomas E. Macom, Sanford D. Porter] Polygyne or multiple-queen colonies of red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, are reported to be a substantially greater environmental and economic problem than monogyne or single-queen fire ants because of much higher population densities associated with polygyny. This study compared population densities of polygyne and monogyne fire ant colonies using measures of mound density, worker number, ant biomass, metabolic consumption, and standing caloric energy of ant biomass. We began the experiment by counting and measuring mounds at 14 polygyne and 14 monogyne sites located within a 35-km radius of Gainesville, FL. Average mound densities were 3.03 times larger at polygyne sites than at monogyne sites (470 versus 155 mounds per hectare). To adjust for differences in mound size, 22 monogyne and 21 polygyne mounds of various sizes were excavated from 16 of the experimental sites. Colony size and biomass were regressed on mound volume. These regressions then were used to estimate colony size and colony biomass from the mound volumes measured at the 28 field sites. The estimated colony sizes and colony biomasses at each site were summed and used to estimate field population densities. Polygyne populations contained 1.94 times more workers per unit area (35 million versus 18 million workers per hectare) and 1.86 times more biomass (27.7 versus 14.9 kg wet weight per hectare) than monogyne populations. Energy usage and standing energy of the ants per hectare were, respectively, 2.30 and 1.90 times higher in polygyne populations. Overall, this study indicates that polygyne population densities are ≈2 times larger on average than monogyne population densities. © 1996 Entomological Society of America Ecology and Population Biology nationallicence Solenopsis invicta colony size nationallicence respiration nationallicence polygyny nationallicence metabolism nationallicence mounds nationallicence Macom Thomas E. 1Department of Entomology and Nematology, Building 970, Hull Road, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0740; Current address: Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, Urban Entomology Center, College Station, TX 77843-2475. aut Porter Sanford D. Medical and Veterinary Entomology Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS, P. O. Box 14565, Gainesville, FL 32604. aut Annals of the Entomological Society of America Oxford University Press 89/4(1996-07-01), 535-543 0013-8746 89:4<535 1996 89 aesa https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/89.4.535 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/89.4.535 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Macom Thomas E. 1Department of Entomology and Nematology, Building 970, Hull Road, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0740; Current address: Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, Urban Entomology Center, College Station, TX 77843-2475 aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Porter Sanford D. Medical and Veterinary Entomology Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS, P. O. Box 14565, Gainesville, FL 32604 aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Annals of the Entomological Society of America Oxford University Press 89/4(1996-07-01), 535-543 0013-8746 89:4<535 1996 89 aesa Metadata rights reserved CC BY-NC-4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-oxford