Reciprocal Illumination A Comparison of Agriculture in Humans and in Fungus-growing Ants

Abstract The fungus-growing ants of the tribe Attini (subfamily Myrmicinae) rely on the cultivation of fungi for food. The cultivated fungi are the sole source of nutrition for the larvae and the principal source of nutrition for the adults. All of the approximately 210 described attine ant species occur exclusively in the New World. Because the Attini are monophyletic and because no other ants are known to cultivate fungi, fungiculture is thought to have arisen a single time in ants. Attine ant fungi­ culture is perhaps the most unusual example of the more general phenomenon of ant agriculture, which has originated many times. Diverse ant species and clades cultivate mutualistic plants by removing weeds, eliminating pests, planting seeds, and providing soil and manure; other ant species herd, protect, and even breed mutualistic aphids and other homopterans (Holldobler and Wilson 1990; Schultz andMcGlynn 2000). No doubt many general ecological patterns and principles could be elucidated by comparing the full range of ant and human agriculture. This chap­ ter provides the first step in such an exercise by focusing on the much more limited comparison of the agricultural systems of fungus-growing ants and humans.