NMNH Fungus Farming Ants - Lower Agriculture

Don Parsons.
October 3, 2024
Media Photo/Video

Photos for News Media Use Only

Close-up of brown ant crawling on jagged surface.
Don Parsons.

A lower-fungus-farming worker of the rare fungus-farming ant species Mycetophylax asper, collected in Santa Catarina, Brazil, in 2014, on its fungus garden.

Nearly 250 different species of ants in the Americas and Caribbean farm fungi. Researchers organize these ants into four agricultural systems based on their cultivation strategies.

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