Eficacia de diferentes dietas para criar hormigas de fuego tropical, Solenopsis Geminata (himenoptera: formicidae) en cautiverio

Abstract

Nine diets were evaluated to determine which would increase the brood and overall mass of captive colonies of the tropical fire ant (Solenopsis geminata). Having healthy ant colonies is paramount for developing biological control organisms, such as decapitating phorid flies. The initial diet using black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens) as the main source of protein was not producing abundant brood, so an alternate diet was needed. Sixty-three nests of S. geminata, collected in the Samanes Park of Guayaquil, were standardized to a 1:1 ratio of brood to workers by weight, and randomly assigned to one of nine diets: Base Diet, (BD, Milk Powder for Calves + Egg Omelet), BD + Beef Liver in Agar, BD + Ground Beef, BD + Adult Crickets (Gryllus assimilis), Egg Omelet (BD – Milk Powder), BD + Soldier Fly Small Larva, BD + Soldier Fly Large Larva, BD + Peanut Butter, and BD + Canned Cat Food. After eight weeks of feeding the diets ad-libitum to the colonies, it was determined that the Base Diet did not maintain the weight of the colonies nor the health index, but treatments of BD + Beef Liver in Agar, BD + Ground Beef, and BD + Soldier Flies (small or large) larvae maintained the weight of the colonies similar to their weight at the beginning of the experiment, and maintained a good health index of 1:1 brood:workers by weight. The other treatments failed to maintain colony weight and good health. From these results, we concluded that none of the diets were optimum for the rearing of the tropical fire ant (S. geminata), but some of the proteins that were added to the base diet did improve growth and good health in the colonies compared to the base diet of only milk powder and eggs.