. Cooperative economic insect report. Beneficial insects; Insect pests. - 901 - NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS FOR FIELD SEPARATION OF FIRE ANTS The following illustrations have been prepared to assist field personnel in making gross examinations of the very largest workers, the ones that usually do not have wings, of Solenopsis geminata (F.) (tropical fire ant); Solenopsis xyloni McCook (southern fire ant) and Solenopsis saevissima richteri Forel (imported fire ant). All three of these forms build mounds, but it is impossible to determine the species from the mound alone. These mounds are most commo
. Cooperative economic insect report. Beneficial insects; Insect pests. - 901 - NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS FOR FIELD SEPARATION OF FIRE ANTS The following illustrations have been prepared to assist field personnel in making gross examinations of the very largest workers, the ones that usually do not have wings, of Solenopsis geminata (F.) (tropical fire ant); Solenopsis xyloni McCook (southern fire ant) and Solenopsis saevissima richteri Forel (imported fire ant). All three of these forms build mounds, but it is impossible to determine the species from the mound alone. These mounds are most commonly found in open places, such as roadsides, fencerows, railroad right-of-ways, open woods, pastures, margins of cultivated fields, edges of streams, around ponds and high areas in moist places. S. geminata (F.) — The largest workers of this species have unusually large heads which are out of proportion to the rest of the body and can be readily seen with the naked eye. Because usually less than one percent of the colony are major workers, a very careful examination of the moxind is necessary to find them. The illustration is an outline drawing; the mandibles are usually darker than the rest of the body, incurved and usually without pronounced teeth. S. xyloni McCook and S^. saevissima richteri Forel — The separation of xvloni and Fichteri is very difficult and positive identification should not be made in the field. Note the illustrations: Xyloni has a noticeably shorter scape. (The scape or first segment is that portion of the antenna which is unusually long and attached to the head.) The scape of richteri is noticeably longer. The mandible of the largest worker of xyloni is usually three-toothed. (Sometimes an irregular pro- jection appears above these three teeth.) In richteri the mandible of the largest worker is rather distinctly four-toothed. (ENT and PPC, ARS) CEIR 7 (48) 11-29-57. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have be
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjectbeneficialinsects, booksubjectinsect
