Molecular diversity of the microsporidium Kneallhazia solenopsae reveals an expanded host range among fire ants in North America.

Host Specificity Testing of the Solenopsis Fire Ant (hymenoptera: Formicidae) Pathogen, Kneallhazia (=thelohania) Solenopsae (microsporidia: Thelohaniidae), in Florida

Evidence of intracolony transmission of Thelohania solenopsae (Microsporidia: Thelohaniidae) in red imported fire ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and the first report of spores from pupae.

Red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, colonies were infected horizontally by introducing live brood (mainly larvae and pupae) infected with Thelohania solenopsae. Live, infected brood introduced into uninfected colonies were adopted and raised to adulthood instead of being executed by the recipient colony. Introductions of infected larvae with uninfected pupae, which eclose into adult work...

Biological control of fire ants: an update on new techniques.

OBJECTIVE To review the present understanding of biological control methods for imported fire ants (IFAs). DATA SOURCES We searched MEDLINE, Biological Abstracts, and the US Department of Agriculture Formis Ant Literature database. STUDY SELECTION All articles published in the last 10 years on biological control of fire ants were selected. RESULTS The decapitating flies Pseudacteon tricus...

BIOLOGICAL CONTROLÐMICROBIALS New Survey for the Fire Ant Microsporidia Vairimorpha invictae and Thelohania solenopsae in Southern South America, with Observations on Their Field Persistence and Prevalence of Dual Infections

The exploration for the Þre ant diseases Vairimorpha invictae Jouvenaz and Ellis (Microsporidia: Burenellidae) and Thelohania solenopsae Knell, Allen, and Hazard (Microsporidia: Thelohaniidae) was conducted from 2001 to 2005 in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, and Brazil. A total of 2,064 colonies were sampled from 262 sites. Three sites with high prevalence of pathogens were monitored peri...

Detection of Thelohania solenopsae (Microsporidia: Thelohaniidae) in Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) by multiplex PCR.

Oligonucleotide primer pairs were designed to unique areas of the small subunit (16S) rRNA gene of Thelohania solenopsae and a region of the Gp-9 gene of Solenopsis invicta. Multiplex PCR resulted in sensitive and specific detection of T. solenopsae infection of S. invicta. The T. solenopsae-specific primer pair only amplified DNA from T. solenopsae and T. solenopsae-infected S. invicta. This p...