While walking through the forest one may
notice a colony of large red ants busily bringing fresh foliage into a
network of large anthills. The town ant officially known as Atta texana creates a vast network
of underground vents, tunnels and corridors sometimes 5 meters or more
below the surface. The ants don’t eat the leaves, but feed them
to a basidiomycete fungus, which serves as their only food. After
mating with the much smaller winged males, large winged females,
sometimes up to half an inch long, carry a piece of the fungus to their
new nest in a special cavity inside her mouth. Once a new nest is
formed the new queen lays eggs and places the fungus in her
feces. The eggs hatch worker ants that care for the fungus,
bringing it food and actively killing any other fungus growing in their
garden.
--D. Ingram
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