Attine ants
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Fungus-growing ants (tribe Attini) comprise all the known fungus-growing ant species participating in ant–fungus mutualism. They are known for cutting grasses and leaves, carrying them to their colonies' nests, and using them to grow fungus on which they later feed. Their farming habits typically have large effects on their surrounding ecosystem. Many species farm large areas surrounding their colonies and leave walking trails that compress the soil, which can no longer grow plants. Attine colonies commonly have millions of individuals, though some species only house a few hundred. They are the sister group to the subtribe Dacetina.
Leafcutter ant Leafcutter ants, a Genus#Generic name, non-generic name, are any of 47 species of leaf-chewing ants belonging to the two genus, genera ''Atta (genus), Atta'' and ''Acromyrmex''. These species of tropical, fungus-growing ants are all Endemism, ende ...
s, including ''
Atta Atta or ATTA may refer to: * Atta Halilintar, Indonesian YouTuber, singer and entrepreneur * ''Atta'' (ant), a genus of ants in the family Formicidae * ''Atta'' (novel), a 1953 novel by Francis Rufus Bellamy * Atta flour, whole wheat flour made f ...
'' and '' Acromyrmex'', make up two of the genera. Their cultivars mostly come from the fungal tribe Leucocoprineae of family Agaricaceae. Attine gut
microbiota Microbiota are the range of microorganisms that may be commensal, symbiotic, or pathogenic found in and on all multicellular organisms, including plants. Microbiota include bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, and viruses, and have been found t ...
is often not diverse due to their primarily monotonous diets, leaving them at a higher risk than other beings for certain illnesses. They are especially at risk of death if their colony's fungus garden is affected by disease, as it is most often the only food source used for developing larvae. Many species of ants, including several '' Megalomyrmex'', invade fungus-growing ant colonies and either steal from and destroy these fungus gardens, or they live in the nest and take food from the species. Fungus-growing ants are only found in the Western Hemisphere. Some species stretch as far north as the pine barrens in
New Jersey, USA New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware R ...
(''
Trachymyrmex septentrionalis ''Trachymyrmex septentrionalis'' is a species of ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...
'') and as far south as the cold deserts in Argentina (several species of ''Acromyrmex''). This New World ant
clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...
is thought to have originated about 60 million years ago in the South American
rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...
. This is disputed, though, as they could have possibly evolved in a drier habitat while still learning to
domesticate Domestication is a sustained multi-generational relationship in which humans assume a significant degree of control over the reproduction and care of another group of organisms to secure a more predictable supply of resources from that group. A ...
their crops.


Evolution

Early ancestors of attine ants were probably insect predators. They likely began foraging for leaf sections, but then converted their primary food source to the fungus these leaf cuts grew. Higher attines, such as '' Acromyrmex'' and ''
Atta Atta or ATTA may refer to: * Atta Halilintar, Indonesian YouTuber, singer and entrepreneur * ''Atta'' (ant), a genus of ants in the family Formicidae * ''Atta'' (novel), a 1953 novel by Francis Rufus Bellamy * Atta flour, whole wheat flour made f ...
'', are believed to have evolved in Central and North America about 20 million years ago (Mya), starting with '' Trachymyrmex cornetzi.'' While the fungal cultivars of the 'lower' attine ants can survive outside an ant colony, those of 'higher' attine ants are obligate mutualists, meaning they cannot exist without one another. Generalized fungus farming in ants appears to have evolved about 55–60 Mya, but early 25 Mya ants seemed to have domesticated a single fungal lineage with gongylidia to feed colonies. This evolution of using gongylidia appears to have developed in the dry habitats of South America, away from the rainforests where fungus-farming evolved. About 10 million years later, leaf-cutting ants likely arose as active
herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...
s and began industrial-scaled farming. The fungus the ants grew, their cultivars eventually became reproductively isolated and co-evolved with the ants. These fungi gradually began decomposing more nutritious material like fresh plants. Shortly after attine ants began keeping their fungus gardens in dense aggregations, their farms likely began suffering from a specialized genus of '' Escovopsis'' mycopathogens. The ants evolved cuticular cultures of Actinomycetota that suppress ''Escovopsis'' and possibly other bacteria. These cuticular cultures are both
antibiotic An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention of ...
s and
antifungal An antifungal medication, also known as an antimycotic medication, is a pharmaceutical fungicide or fungistatic used to treat and prevent mycosis such as athlete's foot, ringworm, candidiasis (thrush), serious systemic infections such as crypto ...
s. The mature worker ants wear these cultures on their chest plates and sometimes on their surrounding thoraces and legs as a biofilm.


Behavior


Mating

Typically, one queen lives per colony. Every year after the colony is about three years old, the queen lays eggs of female and male alates, the reproductive ants that will pass on the genes of the queens. Before leaving the nest, queens stuff some of the fungus' mycelia in her cibarium. These winged males and queens then take their nuptial flights to mate high in the air. In some areas, species flights are synchronized with all local colonies' virgin royalty flying at the same time on the same day, such as ''
Atta sexdens ''Atta sexdens'' is a species of leafcutter ant belonging to the tribe Attini, native to the New World, from the southern United States (Texas) to northern Argentina. They are absent from Chile. They cut leaves to provide a substrate for the fu ...
'' and '' Atta texana''. Some species' queens mate with only one male, as in '' Seriomyrmex'' and ''
Trachymyrmex ''Trachymyrmex '' is a genus of fungus-growing ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus is mainly tropical in distribution, with most species being found in Central and South America. The queens of the species appear to mate with only one ma ...
'', while some are known to mate with as many as eight or 10, such as ''Atta sexdens'' and many'' Acromyrmex'' spp. After mating, all males die, but their sperm stays alive and usable for a long time in the spermatheca, or sperm bank, of their mate, meaning that many ants father offspring years after their death.


Colony foundation

After their mating flights, queens cast off their wings and begin their descent into the ground. After creating a narrow entrance and digging straight down, she creates a small chamber. In here, she spits on a small wad of fungus and starts her colony's garden. After about three days, fresh mycelia are growing out of the fungus wad and the queen has lain three to six eggs. In a month, the colony has eggs, larvae, and often pupae surrounding the ever-growing garden. Until the first workers are grown, the queen is the sole worker. She grows the garden, fertilizing it with her fecal liquid, but does not eat from it. Instead, she gains energy from eating 90% of the eggs she lays, in addition to catabolizing her wing muscles and fat reserves. Though the first larvae feed on the eggs of the queen, the first workers begin growing and eating from the garden. Workers feed malformed eggs to the hungry larvae while the garden is still fragile. After about a week of this underground growth, workers open the closed entrance and begin foraging, staying close to the nest. The fungus begins growing at a much faster rate [] an hour. From this point on, the only work the queen does is egg-laying. Colonies grow slowly for the first two years of existence, but then accelerate for the next three years. After around five years, growth levels out and the colony begins to produce winged males and queens. The founding of a nest by these queens is highly difficult, and successful cases are not likely. After three months, newly founded colonies of ''
Atta capiguara ''Atta capiguara'' is a species of leafcutter ant, a New World ant of the subfamily Myrmicinae of the genus ''Atta Atta or ATTA may refer to: * Atta Halilintar, Indonesian YouTuber, singer and entrepreneur * ''Atta'' (ant), a genus of ants in ...
'' and ''Atta sexdens'' are 0.09% and 2.53% likely to still exist, respectively. Some species have better odds, such as ''
Atta cephalotes ''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 15 years. The colony comprises ...
'', which are 10% likely to survive a few months.


Caste system

Attines have seven castes performing roughly 20–30 tasks, meaning the potential exists for development of more specialized castes performing individual tasks for ''Atta'''s future. For now, a reproductive caste, made of male drones and female queens, and a worker class, that vary greatly in size, are known. Queens have much larger ovaries than females in the working castes. Since their needs are constantly taken care of, queens rarely move from a single location, which is typically in a centralized fungal garden. Workers take their eggs and move them to other fungal gardens. Differences in size between worker castes begin to develop after a colony is well established.


Workers


Description

Lower attines have very minor
polymorphism Polymorphism, polymorphic, polymorph, polymorphous, or polymorphy may refer to: Computing * Polymorphism (computer science), the ability in programming to present the same programming interface for differing underlying forms * Ad hoc polymorphis ...
within the minor workers, though higher attines commonly have very different sizes of worker ants. In the higher attines, though, head width varies eight-fold and dry weight 200-fold between different castes of workers. The size differences in workers is nearly nonexistent in newly founded colonies. Due to the variety of tasks needed to be performed by a colony, the widths of workers heads are important and good measures of what jobs workers are likely to perform. Those with the heads about wide tend to work as gardeners, although many with heads wide participate in brood care. Workers need heads only about 0.8 mm wide to do the work of caring for the very delicate hyphae of the fungus, which they care for by stroking with their antennae and moving with their mouths. These tiny workers are the smallest and most abundant and are called minim. Ants of appear to be the smallest workers that cut vegetation, but they cannot cut very hard or thick leaves. Most foragers have heads around wide. Attines, particularly the workers that cut leaves and grass, have large mandibles powered by strong muscles. On average, 50% of worker ants' head mass and 25% of their full body mass is the mandibular muscles alone.


Behavior

Though all castes defend their nests in the event of invasion, a true soldier caste, with individuals called majors, exists. They are larger than other workers, and use their large, sharp mandibles, powered by huge adductor muscles, to defend their colonies from large enemies, such as vertebrates. When a foraging area is threatened by conspecific or interspecific ant competitor, the majority of respondents are smaller workers from other castes, since they are more numerous, and therefore better suited for
territorial A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...
combat. Tasks are divided not only by size, but by the age of individuals workers, as well. Young workers of most subcastes tend to work inside the nest, but many older workers take on tasks outside. Minims, which are too small to cut or carry leaf fragments, are commonly found at foraging sites. They often ride from the foraging site to the nest by climbing onto the fragments carried by other workers. Most likely, they are older workers that defend carriers from parasitic phorid flies that attempt to lay eggs on the backs of the foragers. All size groups defend their colonies from invaders, but older workers have been found to attack and defend territories most often. At least three of four physical castes of ''A. sexdens'' change their behavior based on their age.


Habitat

Lower attines mostly live in inconspicuous nests with 100–1000 individuals and relatively small fungus gardens in them. Higher attines, in contrast, live in colonies made of 5–10 million ants that live and work within hundreds of interconnected fungus-bearing chambers in huge subterranean nests. Some colonies are so large, they can be seen from satellite photos, measuring up to .


Farming

The majority of fungi that are farmed by attine ants come from the family
Lepiotaceae The Agaricaceae are a family of basidiomycete fungi and include the genus ''Agaricus'', as well as basidiomycetes previously classified in the families Tulostomataceae, Lepiotaceae, and Lycoperdaceae. Taxonomy The family Agaricaceae was publishe ...
, mostly from the genera ''
Leucoagaricus ''Leucoagaricus'' is a genus of fungi in the family Agaricaceae. Several fungus-growing ants cultivate multiple species for food. The genus contains approximately 90 species. Taxonomy This group of mushrooms was first defined as a subgenus of ' ...
'' and '' Leucocoprinus'', though variance occurs within the tribe. Some species in the genus ''
Apterostigma ''Apterostigma'' is a genus of New World ants of the subfamily Myrmicinae. Two species have been described from fossils preserved in Dominican amber, while the others are extant. They are fungus-growing ants, though, unlike the majority of other ...
'' have changed their food source to fungi in the family Tricholomataceae. Some species cultivate yeast, such as ''
Cyphomyrmex rimosus ''Cyphomyrmex rimosus'' is a species of higher Myrmicinae, myrmicine in the family Formicidae. It is part of the tribe Attini, or fungus-growing ants. Subspecies These two subspecies belong to the species ''Cyphomyrmex rimosus'': * ''Cyphomyrmex ...
.'' Some fungi that have supposedly been vertically transmitted are believed to be millions of years old. It was previously assumed that the cultures are always transmitted vertically from colony to young queen, but some lower attines have been found to be growing recently domesticated Lepiotaceae. Some species transfer cultures laterally, such as ''
Cyphomyrmex ''Cyphomyrmex'' is a genus of fungus-growing ants found primarily in South and Central America. However, some species do come up to the southern portion of North America. They grow a variety of fungi in the tribe Leucocoprineae. Most fungal garde ...
'' and occasionally some species of ''Acromyrmex'', whether by joining a neighboring tribe, stealing, or invading another colony's garden. Lower attines do not use leaves for the majority of the substrate for their gardens, and instead prefer dead vegetation, seeds, fruits, insect feces, and corpses.


Worker recruitment

The number of ants that are recruited to cut varies greatly based on the leaf quality available in addition to the species and location of the colony. Leaf quality is complex to measure because many variables exist, including "leaf tenderness, nutrient composition, and the presence and quantity of secondary plant chemicals" such as sugar. Early studies found the pheromones used to mark foraging trails come from poison gland sacs. Studies suggest there are two purposes for marking the trails this way: worker recruitment and orientation cues. The trail recruitment pheromone methyl-4-methylpyrrole-2-carboxylate (MMPC), was the first whose chemical structure was identified. It is also the main trail recruitment pheromone in all ''Atta'' species except ''Atta sexdens'', which uses 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine. MMPC is incredibly potent and effective at attracting ants. One milligram is theoretically powerful enough to create a path that ''A. texana'' and ''A. cephalotes'' would follow three times the
Earth's circumference Earth's circumference is the distance around Earth. Measured around the Equator, it is . Measured around the poles, the circumference is . Measurement of Earth's circumference has been important to navigation since ancient times. The first know ...
[] and that 50% of ''A. vollenweideri'' foragers would follow 60 times around the Earth [].


Harvesting vegetation

Most harvesting sites are in tree canopies or patches of savanna grasses. After following the pheromone trail to vegetation, ants climb onto leaves or grass and begin cutting off sections. To do this, they place one mandible, called the fixed mandible, onto a leaf and anchor it. Then they open the other, called the motile mandible, and place it on the leaf tissue. The ant moves the motile jaw and pulls the fixed jaw behind it by closing them together until the fragment detaches. Which jaw is fixed and which is motile varies depending on the direction in which the ant chooses to cut a fragment. The sizes of leaf fragments have been found in some studies to vary based on the size of ants due to the ants' anchoring of their hind legs while cutting, though other studies have not found correlations. This is likely because many factors affect how ants cut leaves, including neck flexibility,
body axis Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...
location, and leg length. Load sizes that do not impact the running speed of the collecting ants are favored. Often, ants stridulate while cutting vegetation by raising and lowering their gasters in a way that makes a cuticular file on the first gastric tergite and a scraper on the postpetiole rub together. This makes a noise, audible by people with great hearing sitting very close to them and visible using laser-Doppler vibrometry. It also causes the mandibles to move like a
vibratome A vibratome is an instrument used to cut thin slices of material (although, usually thicker slices than those cut in paraffin-embedded samples using a microtome). It is similar to a microtome but uses a vibrating blade to cut through tissue. The ...
and cut through tender leaf tissue more smoothly. The metabolic rate of the ants while and after cutting vegetation is above standard. Their aerobic scope is in the range of
flying insects The Pterygota ( grc, πτερυγωτός, pterugōtós, winged) are a subclass of insects that includes the winged insects. It also includes insect orders that are secondarily wingless (that is, insect groups whose ancestors once had wings b ...
, which are among the most metabolically active animals. The behavior of the foragers that bring the material back to the nest varies greatly among species. In some species, especially those that harvest close to their nests, the harvesters bring the litter back to their colony themselves. Species such as ''A. colombica'' have one or more cache sites along a trail for foragers to grab litter. Other species, such as ''A. vollenweideri'', that carry leaves as far as , have two to five carriers per leaf. The first carrier takes the segment a short distance toward the nest and then drops it. Another picks it up and drops it, and this repeats until the last carrier brings it the greatest distance until reaching the nest. Data does not show that this behavior maximizes load transportation, so scientists have explained this behavior in other ways, though the data are still inconclusive. One theory is that this type of task partitioning increases the efficiency of individual workers as they become specialists. Another is that the chains accelerate communication between ants about the quality and species of the plants being cut, recruits more workers, and reinforces territorial claims by reinforcing the scent markings.


Gardening process

First, foragers bring in to and drop leaf fragments on the nest's chamber floor. Workers that are usually slightly smaller clip these pieces into segments that are about across. Smaller ants then crush these fragments and mold them into damp pellets by adding fecal droplets and kneading them. They add the pellets into a larger pile of other prill. Smaller workers then pluck loose strands of fungus from dense patches and plant them on the surface of the freshly made pile. The smallest workers, the minim, move around and keep up the garden by delicately prodding the piles with their antennae, licking the surfaces, and plucking out the spores and hyphae of unwanted mold species.


Nutrition

Higher attine fungi grow gongylidia, which form clusters called staphylae. The staphylae are rich in carbohydrates and lipids. Though workers can also eat the
hypha A hypha (; ) is a long, branching, filamentous structure of a fungus, oomycete, or actinobacterium. In most fungi, hyphae are the main mode of vegetative growth, and are collectively called a mycelium. Structure A hypha consists of one or ...
e of the fungi, which is richer in protein, they prefer staphylae and appear to live longer while eating them. Cellulose has been found to be poorly degraded and assimilated by fungus, if at all, meaning that the ants that eat the fungus do not get much energy from the cellulose in plants. Xylan,
starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets ...
,
maltose } Maltose ( or ), also known as maltobiose or malt sugar, is a disaccharide formed from two units of glucose joined with an α(1→4) bond. In the isomer isomaltose, the two glucose molecules are joined with an α(1→6) bond. Maltose is the two- ...
,
sucrose Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...
, laminarin, and glycoside apparently play the important roles in ant nutrition. It is not known yet how ants can digest laminarin, but
myrmecologists Myrmecology (; from Greek: μύρμηξ, ''myrmex'', "ant" and λόγος, ''logos'', "study") is a branch of entomology focusing on the scientific study of ants. Some early myrmecologists considered ant society as the ideal form of society and ...
E.O. Wilson and Bert Hölldobler hypothesize that fungal enzymes may occur in the ants' guts, as evidenced by the enzymes found in larval extract. In a laboratory experiment, only 5% of workers' energy needs were met by fungal staphylae, and the ants also feed on
tree sap 01 or '01 may refer to: * The year 2001, or any year ending with 01 * The month of January * 1 (number) Music * 01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001 * ''01'' (Son of Dave album), 2000 * ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011 * ''O1'' (Hiroyuki Sawa ...
as they collect greens. Larvae seem to grow on all or nearly all fungus, whereas queens obtain their energy from the eggs nonqueen females lay and workers feed to them.


Bacterial symbionts

The actinomycete bacterium ''
Pseudonocardia ''Pseudonocardia'' is the type genus of the bacteria family Pseudonocardiaceae. Members of this genus have been found living mutualistically on the cuticle of the leafcutter ants because the bacteria has antibiotic properties that protect the fun ...
'' is acquired by pupae from the workers that care for them two days after pupae eclose for
metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...
. Within 14 days, the ants are covered in the bacteria, where they are stored in crypts and cavities found in the exoskeletons. The bacteria produce small molecules that can prevent the growth of a specialized fungus garden pathogen. Attine ants have very specialized diets, which seem to reduce their microbiotic diversity.


Impact of farming

The scale of the farming done by fungus-farming ants can be compared to human's industrialized farming. A colony can " efoliatea mature eucalyptus tree overnight". The cutting of leaves to grow fungus to feed millions of ants per colony has a large ecological impact in the
subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...
areas in which they reside.


Genera

*'' Acanthognathus'' *'' Acromyrmex'' *''
Allomerus ''Allomerus'' is a Neotropical genus of small ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. Its eight species are known from the forests of South America, where they live in plant cavities and structures. Species *''Allomerus brevipilosus'' Fernández, 200 ...
'' *''
Apterostigma ''Apterostigma'' is a genus of New World ants of the subfamily Myrmicinae. Two species have been described from fossils preserved in Dominican amber, while the others are extant. They are fungus-growing ants, though, unlike the majority of other ...
'' *''
Atta Atta or ATTA may refer to: * Atta Halilintar, Indonesian YouTuber, singer and entrepreneur * ''Atta'' (ant), a genus of ants in the family Formicidae * ''Atta'' (novel), a 1953 novel by Francis Rufus Bellamy * Atta flour, whole wheat flour made f ...
'' *†''
Attaichnus Fungus-growing ants (tribe Attini) comprise all the known fungus-growing ant species participating in ant–fungus mutualism. They are known for cutting grasses and leaves, carrying them to their colonies' nests, and using them to grow fungus on ...
'' *''
Basiceros ''Basiceros'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae Myrmicinae is a subfamily of ants, with about 140 extant genera; their distribution is cosmopolitan. The pupae lack cocoons. Some species retain a functional sting. The petioles ...
'' *''
Blepharidatta ''Blepharidatta'' is a rare Neotropical genus of ant in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus, formed by predatory species whose small colonies nest in soil or leaf-litter, has up to seven species, but most of them are waiting for a formal taxono ...
'' *'' Cephalotes'' *''
Chimaeridris ''Chimaeridris'' is a small genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus contains two species known from tropical Asia. Their unique hook-shaped mandibles and similar appearance to ''Pheidole'' minor workers raises the possibility that t ...
'' *'' Colobostruma'' *''
Cyatta ''Cyatta'' is a genus of ant in the subfamily Myrmicinae containing the single species ''Cyatta abscondita''. It is considered the most recent ancestor of all fungus-farming ants and a living fossil. Etymology ''Cyatta'' is a neologism constru ...
'' *''
Cyphomyrmex ''Cyphomyrmex'' is a genus of fungus-growing ants found primarily in South and Central America. However, some species do come up to the southern portion of North America. They grow a variety of fungi in the tribe Leucocoprineae. Most fungal garde ...
'' *''
Daceton ''Daceton'' is a Neotropical genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus contains only two species: '' D. armigerum'', the most studied species, distributed throughout northern South America, and '' D. boltoni'', known from Brazil and ...
'' *'' Diaphoromyrma'' *'' Epopostruma'' *''
Eurhopalothrix ''Eurhopalothrix'' is a genus of ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. ...
'' *'' Ishakidris'' *''
Kalathomyrmex ''Kalathomyrmex'' is a genus of ant in the subfamily Myrmicinae containing the single species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is ...
'' *'' Lachnomyrmex'' *'' Lenomyrmex'' *'' Mesostruma'' *''
Microdaceton ''Microdaceton'' is an African genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus consists of four species restricted to the Afrotropics. They nest in the leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall o ...
'' *'' Mycetagroicus'' *''
Mycetarotes ''Mycetarotes'' is a genus of fungus-growing ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae Myrmicinae is a subfamily of ants, with about 140 extant genera; their distribution is cosmopolitan. The pupae lack cocoons. Some species retain a functional s ...
'' *'' Mycetomoellerius'' *''
Mycetophylax ''Mycetophylax'' is a genus of fungus-growing ants. The genus is characterized exclusively for the New World and is only found on coastal sandy beaches and shallow waters of Brazil.D. C. Cardoso, M. P. Cristiano and M. G. Tavares. 2011Methodologi ...
'' *'' Mycetosoritis'' *''
Mycocepurus ''Mycocepurus'' is a Neotropical genus of fungus-growing ants (tribe Attini) in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus is known from Mexico, south to Brazil and Argentina. Like other attines, they primarily grow fungi of the tribe Leucocoprini (f ...
'' *''
Myrmicocrypta ''Myrmicocrypta'' is a Neotropical genus of fungus-growing ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus is known from Mexico to Argentina. Their colonies are generally small, consisting of fewer than 200 individuals. Species * '' Myrmicocrypta ...
'' *'' Ochetomyrmex'' *''
Octostruma ''Octostruma'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus is found in the Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical te ...
'' *''
Orectognathus ''Orectognathus'' is a genus of ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. M ...
'' *''
Paramycetophylax ''Paramycetophylax'' is a genus of fungus-growing ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. It contains the single species ''Paramycetophylax bruchi'', known only from Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, R ...
'' *'' Phalacromyrmex'' *'' Pheidole'' *'' Pilotrochus'' *''
Procryptocerus ''Procryptocerus'' is a Neotropical genus of gliding ants, with the ability to "parachute" by steering their fall if they drop off of the tree they're on. Distribution ''Procryptocerus'' inhabits rainforests from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in M ...
'' *'' Protalaridris'' *'' Pseudoatta'' *'' Rhopalothrix'' *'' Sericomyrmex'' *''
Strumigenys ''Strumigenys'' is a genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. Biology ''Strumigenys'' form small nests in soil, under or between rocks, or in and under logs or under cattle dung. Some species nest in association with other ants such as '' Bot ...
'' *'' Talaridris'' *''
Trachymyrmex ''Trachymyrmex '' is a genus of fungus-growing ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. The genus is mainly tropical in distribution, with most species being found in Central and South America. The queens of the species appear to mate with only one ma ...
'' *'' Tranopelta'' *''
Wasmannia ''Wasmannia'' is a genus of ants. ''Wasmannia auropunctata'' is known as the ''electric ant''Xerolitor''


See also

* Ant–fungus mutualism *
Fungus-growing termites The Macrotermitinae, the fungus-growing termites, constitute a subfamily of the family Termitidae that is only found within the Old World tropics. This subfamily consists of 14 genera and about 350 species and are distinguished by the fact th ...
* List of leafcutter ants *
Leucoagaricus gongylophorus ''Leucoagaricus gongylophorus'' is a fungus in the family Agaricaceae which is cultivated by certain leafcutter ants. Like other species of fungi cultivated by ants, ''L. gongylophorus'' produces gongylidia, nutrient-rich hyphal swellings u ...


References


Cited texts

* Hölldobler, Bert and Wilson, EO. (2009). ''The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies''. W. W. Norton & Company.


External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1938502 Myrmicinae Extant Paleocene first appearances