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Fire Ant Venom Attracts Decapitating Parasitic Flies

Last Updated: September 21, 2009

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Chemistry may help scientists improve control of invasive fire ants.

Released September 18, 2009

A fire ant’s weapon is also its weakness. The insect’s venom attracts parasitic flies, which bring about a slow ant death that ends in decapitation.

Fire ants have more than 10 glands, and which ones held the attractant wasn’t clear, says entomologist Henry Fadamiro of Auburn University in Alabama, who led the new research. Fadamiro and colleagues hooked electrodes up to the antennae of flies to investigate which of several stimuli prompted nerves to fire.

The complete article is in ScienceNews online at http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/47468/title/Venom_attracts_decapitating_flies.

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Source: Henry Fadamiro, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Coordinator Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology, Auburn University 334-844-5098, fadamhy@acesag.auburn.edu


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