Cyphomyrmex
Sign in to saveCyphomyrmex is a genus of fungus-growing ants found primarily in South and Central America. However, some species do come up to the southern portion of North America. They grow a variety of fungi in the tribe Leucocoprineae. Most fungal gardens are grown in small nodules, some species to cultivate entire mycelium, though. Colonies are monogynous and are relatively small with about 100 workers on average.
Species
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumArthropoda
- ClassInsecta
- OrderHymenoptera
- FamilyFormicidae
There are two species of Cyphomyrmex recorded from California, both ground-nesting and infrequently encountered. These fungus-growing ants collect caterpillar frass and other organic matter, on which they cultivate fungal mycelia or (in some species) yeasts. Species identification: keys in Snelling and Longino (1992). Additional references: De Andrade (2003), Kempf (1964d, 1966), Schultz et al. (2002), Weber (1972).
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 471
- With media
- 8
- Family
- Formicidae
- Collections
- UQROO, INECOL, UTEP, CAS
- Recorded in
- Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador
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Encyclopedic overview
13 sectionsContents
- Taxonomy
- Description
- Life cycle
- Larvae
- Workers
- Queens
- Behavior
- Social chemistry
- Habitat
- Distribution
- Species
- References
- External links
Cyphomyrmex is a genus of fungus-growing ants found primarily in South and Central America. However, some species do come up to the southern portion of North America. They grow a variety of fungi in the tribe Leucocoprineae. Most fungal gardens are grown in small nodules, some species to cultivate entire mycelium, though. Colonies are monogynous and are relatively small with about 100 workers on average.
== Taxonomy == This genus is within the subfamily Myrmicinae and the tribe Attini. Cyphomyrmex is a more basal part of this phylogenetic relationship. With more recent phylogenetic studies, more derived genera are placed ahead of this genus, now making it sister to the genus Mycetophylax. The fungi that are grown by attine ants, like Cyphomyrmex, follow similar diversification as their ant cultivators. Also, chemicals used throughout the attine ants are derived from one another. So, those used by Cyphomyrmex provided a base plan for more complex mixtures that are found in higher genera, like Trachymyrmex. This helps to relate attine ants to one another and even separate species as chemical profiles can be particularly unique.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Cyphomyrmex” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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