Mycocepurus curvispinosus
Laboratory colony at The University of Texas. Panama
Panama
Mycocepurus smithii
A tiny fungus-growing ant navigates a moss bed carrying a heavy load of frass. El Yunque, Puerto Rico.
The strength of an ant. El Yunque, Puerto Rico.
Refugio Amazonas, Tambopata, Peru.
Fungus-growing ants carrying caterpillar frass into their nest. Refugio Amazonas, Tambopata, Peru.
Well camouflaged against the oxidizing soil of a tropical forest, a small fungus-growing ant carries soil up from a nest excavation deep underground. Cayó District, Belize.
Portrait of a parthenogenetic ant, Mycocepurus smithii, from a laboratory colony at the University of Texas. Austin, Texas, USA.
Mycocepurus smithii is the only known parthenogenetic ant. Entire populations persist without males or sexual reproduction. Here, workers tend to their fungal cultivars in a laboratory colony at the University of Texas. Austin, Texas, USA.
Mycocepurus smithii workers in a laboratory fungus garden at the University of Texas. Austin, Texas, USA.
Fungal thread at the periphery of an ant-fungus garden. The ants are true agriculturalists, cultivating an edible fungus on a substrate of assorted debris. Panama
Mycocepurus smithii is the only known parthenogenetic ant. Entire populations persist without males or sexual reproduction. Here, workers and alate queens mingle in the fungus garden of a laboratory colony at the University of Texas. Austin, Texas, USA.
Mycocepurus smithii fungus-growing ants cultivate their crop on a laboratory diet of oats and corn meal at the University of Texas. Austin, Texas, USA.
Inside the fungus garden of the asexual ant Mycocepurus smithii. Panama
