Farming Ants: Leafcutters and Fungus Growers - Page 5 - Alex Wild Photography - Insect Images - Insect Pictures

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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alexwild > The busy nest entrance of Atta colombica, a forest-dwelling leafcutter ant.

Gamboa, Panama

alexwild > Atta cephalotes. A small worker atop a leaf guards her sister against attacks by parasitic flies. Ants laden with cargo cannot use their mandibles for defense, so they carry hitchhikers to ward off the parasites.

Gamboa, Panama

alexwild > Cyphomyrmex rimosus

Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA

alexwild > 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

alexwild > Cyphomyrmex costatus in their edible fungal galleries.

Panama

alexwild > Cyphomyrmex flavidus

Sycamore Canyon, Arizona, USA

alexwild > 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

alexwild > 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

alexwild > 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

The busy nest entrance of Atta colombica, a forest-dwelling leafcutter ant.

Gamboa, Panama

> The busy nest entrance of Atta colombica, a forest-dwelling leafcutter ant.

Gamboa, Panama

The busy nest entrance of Atta colombica, a forest-dwelling leafcutter ant.

Gamboa, Panama

Camera: Canon (Canon Eos D60) |

More details: exif |

Original size: 3072px x 2048px |

Current: 400px x 267px |

Other sizes: Small • M • L |

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all images and text © Alex Wild 2010

insect pictures, insect images, insect photos, insect photography, ant images, bug pictures, bug photographs, insect identification, ant pictures

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