Abstract

The remarkable fungus-growing and fungus-feeding habits of the neotropical Attiine ants, first surmised by Belt (1874) and Fritz Muller (1874) and subsequently elucidated by the classical investigations of Tanner (1892), Alfred Moeller (1893), Huber (1905) and Wheeler (0907), have led to a search for other fungivorous representatives of the Formicidae. Emery (i899) is of the opinion that Messor barbarus subsp. structor Latr. feeds upon fungi, as well as seeds and other food-substances. Lagerheim (i900) states that Lasius fuliginosus Latr. cultivates Cladotrichumt myrmecophilurn (Fres.) Lag.,1 which functions as a food and in giving stability to the walls of its carton nest. Ferdinandsen and Winge (i908) quote Raunkiaer as having reached the conclusion that Chrornosporium formicarun Ferd. & Wge. is eaten by the ants in whose nest it grows. Farquharson (19I4) appears to favor the view that certain Nigerian Crematogasters are fungus-f armers. Donisthorpe (I9I5) believes that Cladosporium myrmecophilum (Fres.) Ell. is an important item of food in the diet of Lasius fuliginosus, and that Hormniscium pithyophilum (Wallr.) Saccr. var. rnyrmecophilum Ell. is cultivated by L. umibratus Nyl. Elliott (I9I4) suggests that the cultures of fungi in the carton nests of L. fuliginosus and L. umibratus probably originate-as is the case with fungi cultivated by certain Attiine ants-by a transfer of a definite culture of mycelium which is subsequently manured, tended and weeded by the ants. The principal arguments advanced in favor of the view that various Formicidae, other than the Attii, cultivate and feed upon fungi are the following: (i) The association of a particular fungus with a particular species of ant, (2) the occurrence of the fungus in pure cultures, (3) the cropping of aerial and other hyphae by the workers and, (4) analogies with the fungus-growing and fungus-feeding habits of the Attiine ants. It is to be emphasized in this connection, however, that the occurrence of more or less cultures of a particular fungus in the domatia of a given species of insect, does not indicate necessarily that the mycelium is actually cultivated and eaten by the latter, since, as suggested by Perkins (1914), the mats of hyphae may be adventitious. Nor is the cropping of aerial hyphae conclu-

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