A Naturally Occuring Teratology in the Red Imported Fire Ant

Authors

B. Michael Glancey, USDA
Clifford S. Lofgren, USDA

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

1986

Comments

Published in The Florida Entomologist, Vol. 69, No. 4 (Dec., 1986), pp. 764-767.

Abstract

Two aberrant forms of the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta Buren have been reported in the literature. The first was a gyandromorph (an individual having both male and female characteristics) found by Hung (1975) and the second, an intercaste (an individual with characteristics intermediate between a worker and a female alate) by Glancey et al. (1980). We now report the finding of a new morphological form which was apparently caused by environmental factors.