Ants have developed many survival strategies, from seed harvesting to fungus gardening. But the Euprenolepis procera ant (pictured right) of southeast Asia has an entirely new strategy: gathering wild mushrooms.
Volker Witte of Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, and Ulrich Maschwitz of Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University in Frankfurt tracked the ants in the Malaysian rainforest and discovered that they are both nomadic and can survive on mushrooms alone. Although some other ants are known to be nomads, the diet of wild mushrooms is a surprise, as they are often loaded with toxins and low in nutrients.
The authors argue that once the ability to consume fungus developed, intense competition with other species drove them to devote themselves to this food specially.
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Ecology: Fungus hunters. Nature 454, 670 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454670c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/454670c
