''Mycocepurus'' is a

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

fungus-growing ants 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 o ...

(

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...

Attini) in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

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 of Myrmicinae consist of two nodes. The nests are permanent and ...

. The genus is known from

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, south to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Like other attines, they primarily grow fungi of the tribe Leucocoprini (family

Agaricaceae 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 ...

). They use many different substrates for growing their fungi, from dry leaves and caterpillar dung to fruit matter. One of its species, ''

Mycocepurus smithii ''Mycocepurus smithii'' is a species of fungus-growing ant from Latin America. This species is widely distributed geographically and can be found from Mexico in the north to Argentina in the south, as well as on some Caribbean Islands. It lives ...

'', which lives in South America, reproduces by

cloning Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, cl ...

– all ants in a colony are clones of the queen. ''M. castrator'' is a parasite of ''M. goeldii''.

Species

* '' Mycocepurus castrator'' Rabeling & Bacci, 2010 * '' Mycocepurus curvispinosus'' MacKay 1998 * ''

Mycocepurus goeldii ''Mycocepurus goeldii'' is a species of ant in the genus '' Mycocepurus''. The species is parasitised by a closely related species, '' Mycocepurus castrator''. The two diverged recently, around 37,000 years ago, and evolved in the same geograp ...

'' ( Forel, 1893) * '' Mycocepurus obsoletus'' Emery, 1913 * ''

'' (Forel, 1893) * '' Mycocepurus tardus'' Weber, 1940

References

External links

* Myrmicinae Ant genera Hymenoptera of South America Hymenoptera of North America {{myrmicinae-stub