"Two Common Ponerine Ants of Possible Economic Significance”
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The ants grow a particular crop of fungi they have cultivated (and domesticated) for millions of years. Different species of ants have different crops.
The way they excavate the soil and enrich it is probably important to many other organisms.
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It absolutely has. In the higher attines the fungi helps maintain a level of humidity perfect for ant eggs and larvae. The young ants are embedded in it. They are born cradled in hyphae. The fungus produces nutrition rich bodies (not mushrooms, but more like underground nodes) with the protein and sugars the ants need most.
The integration is likely deeper than that of humans and our crops.
@futurebird @datarama So these particular ants could not live without their fungi? The fungi has been subjected to selection, but have the ants?
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regarding the photo: did they.. drown an entire ant city in liquid rock so they could map it? 🫣 Or did they discover it already abandoned by its urban-farming citizens?
A farmer was fed up with the ants and wanted them gone. ("economic significance" strikes again, but I do have some sympathy for the poor farmers, these girls can strip a fruit tree overnight) This species isn't in any danger.
The farmer was going to have the nest dug up and destroyed so the scientists stepped in and learned something from it.
The thing about digging up the biggest ant nest is it allows the second and third biggest to take over... it's not that effective.
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A farmer was fed up with the ants and wanted them gone. ("economic significance" strikes again, but I do have some sympathy for the poor farmers, these girls can strip a fruit tree overnight) This species isn't in any danger.
The farmer was going to have the nest dug up and destroyed so the scientists stepped in and learned something from it.
The thing about digging up the biggest ant nest is it allows the second and third biggest to take over... it's not that effective.
I don't know if this casting is the one with the farmer, but one I read about that was very similar was such a situation.
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It absolutely has. In the higher attines the fungi helps maintain a level of humidity perfect for ant eggs and larvae. The young ants are embedded in it. They are born cradled in hyphae. The fungus produces nutrition rich bodies (not mushrooms, but more like underground nodes) with the protein and sugars the ants need most.
The integration is likely deeper than that of humans and our crops.
@futurebird @JeanieBurrell @datarama it’s likely to be not entirely the genius of the ants tending to a passive fungus, I’d suspect the fungus is as much responsible for the worktogethering here, and perhaps induced the ants to do this sort of thing, I wouldn’t put it past a fungus to make an ant do a thing
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@futurebird @datarama So these particular ants could not live without their fungi? The fungi has been subjected to selection, but have the ants?
To what extent have corn and wheat shaped humanity?
(consider our little teeth. )
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@futurebird @JeanieBurrell @datarama it’s likely to be not entirely the genius of the ants tending to a passive fungus, I’d suspect the fungus is as much responsible for the worktogethering here, and perhaps induced the ants to do this sort of thing, I wouldn’t put it past a fungus to make an ant do a thing
@u0421793 @datarama @JeanieBurrell
There are plants that control their ants. There are trees that get ants basically addicted to their nectar, to keep them around as body guards.
I do think the relationship of the fungi and the attines is most like that of humans and our domestic crops. It's a kind of deep mutual dependency.
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@futurebird @datarama So these particular ants could not live without their fungi? The fungi has been subjected to selection, but have the ants?
@JeanieBurrell @futurebird Leafcutters are *entirely* dependent on that fungus. All those leaves they famously cut aren't for them - they're for the fungus farms. Their digestive system is extremely specialized and they can't eat anything else.
When young queens fly from the hive, they first visit the fungus farms to bring a wad of fungus with them. They even "feed" it with their own eggs until the first broods of workers can start bringing leaves!
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@JeanieBurrell @futurebird Leafcutters are *entirely* dependent on that fungus. All those leaves they famously cut aren't for them - they're for the fungus farms. Their digestive system is extremely specialized and they can't eat anything else.
When young queens fly from the hive, they first visit the fungus farms to bring a wad of fungus with them. They even "feed" it with their own eggs until the first broods of workers can start bringing leaves!
@datarama @futurebird Oh! Like keeping a bit of my sourdough starter to make more sourdough starter. So that specific fungi is also dispersed by them?
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@datarama @futurebird Oh! Like keeping a bit of my sourdough starter to make more sourdough starter. So that specific fungi is also dispersed by them?
@JeanieBurrell @futurebird Yes. It doesn't live anywhere but their hives; it can't survive on its own in the wild.
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@JeanieBurrell @futurebird Yes. It doesn't live anywhere but their hives; it can't survive on its own in the wild.
@futurebird can correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC there are also some aphid species that have become ant livestock and are now completely incapable of surviving without being tended and protected by ants.
(We apes were latecomers to the domestication and agriculture game, really.
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@futurebird can correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC there are also some aphid species that have become ant livestock and are now completely incapable of surviving without being tended and protected by ants.
(We apes were latecomers to the domestication and agriculture game, really.
)@datarama @futurebird I try to grow roses. Aphids are my nightmare. No chemicals, though. Ladybugs are best bugs!
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@datarama @futurebird I try to grow roses. Aphids are my nightmare. No chemicals, though. Ladybugs are best bugs!
@JeanieBurrell @futurebird I live on the fourth floor and have a little collection if indoor bonsai - and one of them *still* got killed by an aphid infestation. How those things managed to get up here I have no idea.
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@JeanieBurrell @futurebird I live on the fourth floor and have a little collection if indoor bonsai - and one of them *still* got killed by an aphid infestation. How those things managed to get up here I have no idea.
@JeanieBurrell @futurebird (I had a *really* nice Chinese sweet plum tree which got killed by aphids. The other plant that got hit was my pre-bonsai baobab, and the only thing that ended up defeating the little critters was chopping off all the leaf-bearing branches entirely and letting it backbud new ones.)
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@JeanieBurrell @futurebird (I had a *really* nice Chinese sweet plum tree which got killed by aphids. The other plant that got hit was my pre-bonsai baobab, and the only thing that ended up defeating the little critters was chopping off all the leaf-bearing branches entirely and letting it backbud new ones.)
I use a lint roller to remove aphids.
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@JeanieBurrell @futurebird Leafcutters are *entirely* dependent on that fungus. All those leaves they famously cut aren't for them - they're for the fungus farms. Their digestive system is extremely specialized and they can't eat anything else.
When young queens fly from the hive, they first visit the fungus farms to bring a wad of fungus with them. They even "feed" it with their own eggs until the first broods of workers can start bringing leaves!
@datarama @JeanieBurrell @futurebird I've heard leafcutter ant experts refer to the fungus as "an external digestive system".
Also, I believe the fungi have speciated with their ants (as have the parasitic fungi that prey on the farms, as have the waxy bacteria that grow on the ants and provide antibiotics to control the parasites). It's an amazing coevolving little ecosystem
