Cyphomyrmex wheeleri is the most temperate of the Cyphomyrmex species, occurring as far north as San Francisco, California. Here worker ants tend to their fungus garden. Austin, Texas, USA - Alex Wild Photography - Insect Photography

Farming Ants: Leafcutters and Fungus Growers

Hundreds of ant species live as farmers in the warmer regions of North and South America. These insects- a single evolutionary radiation- cultivate an edible fungus fed with bits of vegetative debris, or in the case of the leafcutter ants, with live vegetation.

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Cyphomyrmex rimosus

Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA

Cyphomyrmex wheeleri is the most temperate of the Cyphomyrmex species, occurring as far north as San Francisco, California. Here worker ants tend to their fungus garden.

Austin, Texas, USA

Cyphomyrmex costatus in their edible fungal galleries.

Panama

An ambitious Cyphomyrmex forager carries a piece of insect frass back to the nest. These ants feed exclusively on a fungus that grows on the bits of detritus they gather.

Mindo, Ecuador

Some species of Cyphomyrmex fungus-growing ants are unusual in cultivating their fungus in yeast form. Rather than spongy white mycelia, the gardens of these ants are full of bite-sized white yeast globules.

Mindo, Ecuador

Some Cyphomyrmex species cultivate their fungus as a yeast, visible here as little white globules.

Mindo, Ecuador

Cyphomyrmex flavidus

Sycamore Canyon, Arizona, USA

Mycetarotes fungus garden in a lab nest. Male ants, seen here as the winged, dark-colored individuals, perform no labor in the colony, serving instead to disperse the colonies' genes during periodic mating flights outside the nest.

Parque Nacional Iguazu, Argentina; Laboratory colony at the University of Texas

Mycetosoritis hartmanni in their subterranean fungus garden. The fungus- a white stringy material- grows between the bits of debris fed to it by the ants. The ants then feed from the fungus- a true agricultural system.

Smithville, Texas, USA

Cyphomyrmex wheeleri is the most temperate of the Cyphomyrmex species, occurring as far north as San Francisco, California. Here worker ants tend to their fungus garden.

Austin, Texas, USA

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Farming Ants: Leafcutters and Fungus Growers

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