Five novel RNA viruses of the invasive big-headed ant (Pheidole megacephala)

Abstract

The African big-headed ant, Pheidole megacephala, is one of the most destructive invasive ant species, posing a significant threat to native biodiversity and ecosystem function, particularly in island ecosystems. Despite recent efforts to characterize pathogens in other major invasive ants, P. megacephala has received comparatively little attention. In this study, we characterized five novel RNA viruses actively replicating in P. megacephala, which we have named Pheidole megacephala virus 1–5 (PmV1-5), and examined viral diversity and prevalence in two invasive populations in Taiwan and Hawaii. This ant possesses a unique trait of true morphological worker dimorphism (major and minor), allowing us to test whether virus prevalence differs between the major and minor worker castes. Our findings indicate that all five novel viruses were present in both populations, but viral prevalence was higher in Hawaii than in Taiwan, potentially due to differences in supercolony structure. Multiple-virus infections were common, with coinfection by PmV1 and PmV5 being the most frequent. Notably, we found no significant difference in infection patterns between major and minor workers, suggesting that virus distribution is stable within colonies and that sampling different castes does not introduce bias in pathogen detection. This study represents the first characterization of viral pathogens in P. megacephala and may contribute to the development of microbial control strategies against this globally invasive ant.