How do leaf-cutting ants recognize antagonistic microbes in their fungal crops?

AC Goes, MO Barcoto, PW Kooij, OC Bueno… - Frontiers in Ecology …, 2020 - frontiersin.org
Leaf-cutting ants employ diverse behavioral strategies for promoting the growth of fungal
cultivars in a structure known as fungus garden. As a nutritionally rich resource for the ants …

Ants/nest-associated fungi and their specialized metabolites: taxonomy, chemistry, and bioactivity

ÁS Aguilar-Colorado, J Rivera-Chávez - Revista Brasileira de …, 2023 - Springer
Microscopic fungi occupy a vast number of habitats, are taxonomically diverse, degrade
complex substrates, and have stood out for their capacity to biosynthesize a plethora of …

Amoimyrmex Cristiano, Cardoso & Sandoval, gen. nov. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): a new genus of leaf‐cutting ants revealed by multilocus molecular phylogenetic …

MP Cristiano, DC Cardoso… - Austral …, 2020 - Wiley Online Library
Leaf‐cutting ants (genera Acromyrmex and Atta) are the most important herbivores in the
Neotropical region. Within the genus Acromyrmex, the species and subspecies Acromyrmex …

The molecular phylogenetics of Trachymyrmex Forel ants and their fungal cultivars provide insights into the origin and coevolutionary history of 'higher‐attine' ant …

SE Solomon, C Rabeling, J Sosa‐Calvo… - Systematic …, 2019 - Wiley Online Library
The fungus‐growing ants and their fungal cultivars constitute a classic example of a
mutualism that has led to complex coevolutionary dynamics spanning c. 55–65 Ma. Of the …

Phylogenetic patterns of ant–fungus associations indicate that farming strategies, not only a superior fungal cultivar, explain the ecological success of leafcutter ants

UG Mueller, MR Kardish, HD Ishak… - Molecular …, 2018 - Wiley Online Library
To elucidate fungicultural specializations contributing to ecological dominance of leafcutter
ants, we estimate the phylogeny of fungi cultivated by fungus‐growing (attine) ants …

Phylogenomic reconstruction reveals new insights into the evolution and biogeography of Atta leaf‐cutting ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

CA Barrera, J Sosa‐Calvo, TR Schultz… - Systematic …, 2022 - Wiley Online Library
Atta Fabricius is an ecologically dominant leaf‐cutting ant genus, the major herbivore of the
Neotropics, and an agricultural pest of great economic importance. Phylogenetic …

Acromyrmex fowleri: a new inquiline social parasite species of leaf-cutting ants from South America, with a discussion of social parasite biogeography in the …

C Rabeling, S Messer, S Lacau, IC Do Nascimento… - Insectes Sociaux, 2019 - Springer
Ant inquiline social parasites obligately depend on their hosts for survival and reproduction.
Because of their shift from a eusocial to a socially parasitic life history, inquiline social …

Life history, nest longevity, sex ratio, and nest architecture of the fungus-growing ant Mycetosoritis hartmanni (Formicidae: Attina)

UG Mueller, AG Himler, CE Farrior - Plos one, 2023 - journals.plos.org
Mycetosoritis hartmanni is a rarely collected fungus-farming ant of North America. We
describe life history and nest architecture for a M. hartmanni population in central Texas …

Unraveling fungal species cultivated by lower attine ants

S Urrea-Valencia, RB Júnior, PW Kooij… - Mycological …, 2023 - Springer
Fungus-growing attine ants rely on an obligatory nutritional mutualism with fungi. Most attine
ant genera cultivate fungi in the basidiomycete tribe Leucocoprineae (Agaricales …

Evolution, systematics, and natural history of a new genus of cryptobiotic fungus‐growing ants

J SOSA‐CALVO, TR Schultz, A JeŠovnik… - Systematic …, 2018 - Wiley Online Library
Xerolitor, a new, monotypic genus of fungus‐growing ants, is described to accommodate the
phylogenetically isolated, relict species Mycetosoritis explicatus Kempf. We also diagnose …