Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Leafcutter ants are any of at least 55 species [1] [2] [3] of leaf-chewing ants belonging to the three genera Atta, Acromyrmex, and Amoimyrmex, within the tribe Attini. [4] These species of tropical, fungus-growing ants are all endemic to South and Central America, Mexico, and parts of the southern United States. [5]
The ants actively cultivate their fungus on a medium of masticated leaf tissue. This is the sole food of the queen and other colony members that remain in the nest. The mediae also gain subsistence from plant sap they ingest whilst physically cutting out sections of leaf from a variety of plants.
The scale of the farming done by fungus-farming ants can be compared to human's industrialized farming. [5] [11] [78] [79] A colony can "[defoliate] a mature eucalyptus tree overnight". [33] The cutting of leaves to grow fungus to feed millions of ants per colony has a large ecological impact in the subtropical areas in which they reside. [7]
After media ants bring leaves back to the nest, minims chew them up into nice pellets for the fungus to feed on. Minims protect the fungus, diligently keeping out pests and watching for disease or ...
The fungus Escovopsis is a parasite in fungus-growing ant colonies that can greatly harm the fungal gardens through infection, [22] and the bacterium Pseudonocardia has a mutualistic relationship with ants. The relationship is thought to have been used by the ants for millions of years, co-evolving to produce the right type of antibiotics.
Town ant, parasol ant, fungus ant, Texas leafcutter ant, cut ant, night ant Texas, Louisiana, northeastern states of Mexico Atta vollenweideri: Acromyrmex ameliae: southern Brazil Acromyrmex ambiguus: Quenquém-preto-brilhante: Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay: Acromyrmex aspersus: Quenquém-rajada : southern Brazil and Peru: Acromyrmex balzani
These leaf-cutting ants and fungus survive in an ant–fungus mutualism [6] - an obligate symbiosis - in which neither can exist without the other. Ants grow the fungus - the basidiomycete cultivar - propagating it, nurturing and defending it - the fungus becomes almost their sole source of food. [7]
Atta cephalotes is a species of leafcutter ant in the tribe Attini (the fungus-growing ants). A single colony of ants can contain up to 5 million members, and each colony has one queen that can live more than 20 years. The colony comprises different castes, known as "task partitioning", and each caste has a different job to do. [2]