The mutualistic relationship between leaf-cutting ants and their fungal cultivars, primarily Leucoagaricus gongylophorus, constitutes one of nature’s most intricate examples of symbiosis. This ...
Ph.D. student Juju Dessert will explore the fascinating world of leafcutter ants. These ants aren’t eating the leaves they carry—they use plant matter to cultivate a special fungus in their ...
You have one of two relationships with leaf-cutter ants. First, you’re a nature-lover, visiting Costa Rica, as you always do, when it’s a little too cold at home. You’re enjoying the house you don’t ...
You have probably seen leaf-cutter ants carrying bits of plants, maybe in a nature documentary, at a science museum or in the “Circle of Life” song at the beginning of the 1994 Disney animated film ...
Leaf-cutter ant nests are biogeochemical hot spots where ants live and import vegetation to grow fungus. Metabolic activity and (in wet tropical forests) soil gas flux to the nest may result in high ...
Species of ants that practice a complex form of fungi agriculture developed their knack for farming about 50 million years ago and have employed several different, successful strategies to culture ...
Like any relationship, the key to a successful leaf-cutter ant colony is communication. The colony that "talks" to each other can conquer forces much larger than themselves. For example, army ant ...
Researchers at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom have found that leaf-cutter ants have a simple system to build up healthful microbes on their exoskeletons—a system the researchers ...
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