Yesterday while at the Kranji Nature Trail, many of us noticed the odd occurrence of a great number of the black spiny ants (Polyrachis sp.) apparently ’suspended in motion’, especially towards the end of the trail where the mangroves met with the secondary forest. They were all dead, their mandibles clasping onto the edge of a leaf, or twig, and isolated from the colonies. We suspected it’s the doing of fungal parasitism. I collected a few of them, with the thought of doing some research on this. Today I saw fungal growth on the ants – so the cause of death is certain.
More on this to come as soon as I find out more.
on Feb 4th, 2010 at 11:20 am
Mefluidide was the only one of four plant growth regulators that caused little to no significant inhibition of in vitro germination and growth of the entomogenous fungus Beauveria bassiana. Silaid, paclobutrazol, and flurprimidol significantly inhibited germination and growth. Mortality of fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, resulting from B. bassiana was significantly reduced when larvae were exposed to conidia plus soil treated with paclobutrazol. Larval mortality resulting from conidia plus soil treated with mefluidide did not differ significantly from mortality resulting from untreated conidia. Triton CS-7 was the only one of eight spray adjuvants that significantly inhibited germination of B. bassiana conidia.