Category: Uncategorized

EO WILSON AND BERT HÖLLDOBLER on the superorganism, based on their work on ants, which is midway between an organism and the entire species. Remarkable men, remarkable concept. Between them, they know more than anybody else about ants. No article on ants could be complete without homage to these two men. https://lnkd.in/ebEGeFc View in LinkedIn

TALKING FUNGUS. "Leaf cutter ants are sensitive enough to adapt to the fungi's reaction to different plant material, apparently detecting chemical signals from the fungus. If a particular type of leaf is toxic to the fungus, the colony will no longer collect it. The only two other groups of insects to use fungus-based agriculture are ambrosia beetles and termites." https://lnkd.in/ej4XkBq View in LinkedIn

GONOGLIDIA. "In return for receiving a continuous supply of leaf-material, protection from competitors, and dispersal, the fungus these ants grow provide nutrients in the form of specialized hyphal swellings called gongylidia. Gongylidia, which contain a mixture of carbohydrates, amino acids, proteins, lipids, and vitamins, is the sole food source for developing larvae." https://lnkd.in/eCSpjH7 View in LinkedIn

HUNTERS AND CHEWERS. "The leaves in the rain forest have toxic qualities in them which is supposed to deter herbivory. But the harvesting ants cut the leaves without ingesting any of the toxins and are able to bring the leaves back to the nest. There the leaves are given to worker ants which chew up the leaves in their mouths into a paste which becomes the food source for the fungus." https://lnkd.in/eneZexX View in LinkedIn

MONOCULTURE. "Only the fungus-growing ants and termites have developed large-scale societies that are completely dependent on specific fungal symbionts for producing most of their food." https://lnkd.in/eGiw4-3 View in LinkedIn

ANT BIOMASS. Leafcutter ants. "In the Amazon forest they comprise four times more biomass than do all land animals combined." https://lnkd.in/ehPTKsY View in LinkedIn

LEAF MACHINE. Leafcutter ants' "fungus gardens can support millions of workers capable of harvesting over 400 kg of leaf material (dry weight) annually." (Equal to 1,200 kgs of fresh leaves/year/nest, the weight of a typical car). https://lnkd.in/eCSpjH7 View in LinkedIn

GIANT FARMS. Leafcutter ants' "nests' enormous sizes (up to 5000 gardens) and extended lifespans (10–20 years). Atta gardens are discrete units, with an average garden size of about 30×20×20 cm3...the hundreds of Atta gardens can be spaced across an underground volume exceeding 1000 cubic meters...A. texana and A. cephalotes are leafcutter ants with enormous colonies (more than 2 million workers)." https://lnkd.in/ew5j47P View in LinkedIn

MAJOR HERBIVORES. "Fungus-farming (attine) ants are a clade of more than 240 described New World species that cultivate fungus gardens on which they obligately depend for food. The first fungus-farming ant evolved in South America from a hunter-gatherer ant ancestor ∼50–56 million years ago." 12 million years ago they became the major herbivores of the New World tropics. https://lnkd.in/et8V2SM View in LinkedIn

VAST SUCCESS. "Ants are one of the most successful insects on earth, comprising up to 20% of all terrestrial animal biomass and at least 25% of the entire animal biomass in the New World Tropics." https://lnkd.in/eCSpjH7 View in LinkedIn