fungus-growing ant


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fun·gus-grow·ing ant

 (fŭng′gəs-grō′ĭng)
n.
Any of numerous ants of the tribe Attini of South America, Central America, and the southern United States that cultivate basidiomycetous fungi for food, and including the leaf-cutter ants. Also called attine ant.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive ?
Springtails are common inhabitants of fungus-growing ant nests, and in some cases they can be considered to be pests of the fungal gardens maintained by the ants.
Metarhizium anisopliae and Trichoderma viride for control of nests of the fungus-growing ant, Atta cephalotes.
It also found that Escovopsis is more of a generalist than was previously thought; the same genetic variant was found invading the farms of distantly related fungus-growing ant species, and as many as three different forms of Escovopsis were found in the same ant colony.
In the Amazon forest they comprise four times more biomass than do all land animals combined."This is the first indication of bacterial garden symbionts in the fungus-growing ant system," Currie, a UW-Madison professor of bacteriology said.A critical finding in the new study, according to the Wisconsin scientist, is that the nitrogen, which is extracted from the air by the bacteria, ends up in the ants themselves and, ultimately, benefits the nitrogen-poor ecosystems where the ants thrive.The fungus-growing ants, Currie notes, are technically herbivores.
"This is the first indication of bacterial garden symbionts in the fungus-growing ant system," said University of Wisconsin-Madison bacteriologist Cameron Currie.
The effects of the fungus-growing ant, Trachymyrmex jamaicensis, on soil fertility and seed germination in a subtropical dry forest.