Temporary Page

Attini

Fungus-growing ants

Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
taxon links [up-->]Mycetosoritis [up-->]Mycetagroicus [up-->]Mycocepurus [up-->]Cyphomyrmex [up-->]Acromyrmex [up-->]Atta [up-->]Sericomyrmex [up-->]Myrmicocrypta [up-->]Mycetophylax [up-->]Mycetarotes [up-->]Trachymyrmex [up-->]Apterostigma [down<--]Myrmicinae Interpreting the tree
close box

This tree diagram shows the relationships between several groups of organisms.

The root of the current tree connects the organisms featured in this tree to their containing group and the rest of the Tree of Life. The basal branching point in the tree represents the ancestor of the other groups in the tree. This ancestor diversified over time into several descendent subgroups, which are represented as internal nodes and terminal taxa to the right.

example of a tree diagram

You can click on the root to travel down the Tree of Life all the way to the root of all Life, and you can click on the names of descendent subgroups to travel up the Tree of Life all the way to individual species.

For more information on ToL tree formatting, please see Interpreting the Tree or Classification. To learn more about phylogenetic trees, please visit our Phylogenetic Biology pages.

close box
Classification after Bolton (2003); tree after Wetterer et al. (1998).
Containing group: Myrmicinae

Characteristics

The Attini share the following synapomorphy with the Blepharidattini (Bolton 2003): In addition, the Attini have the following apomorphies:

Other Names for Attini

References

Baroni Urbani, C. 1980. First description of fossil gardening ants (Amber Collection Stuttgart and Natural History Museum Basel, Hymenoptera: Formicidae. 1: Attini). Stuttgarter Beitraege zur Naturkunde Serie B (Geologie und Palaeontologie) No. 54: 1-13.

Bolton, B. 1994. Identification Guide to the Ant Genera of the World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bolton, B. 1995. A New General Catalogue of the Ants of the World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bolton, B. 2003. Synopsis and Classification of Formicidae. 370 pp. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute, Vol. 71. Gainesville, FL.

Brandão, C. R. F. and A. J. Mayhé-Nunes. 2001. A new fungus-growing ant genus, Mycetagroicus gen. n., with the description of three new species and comments on the monophyly of the Attini. Sociobiology 38: 639-665.

Chapela, I. H., S. A. Rehner, T. R. Schultz, and U. G. Mueller. 1994. Evolutionary history of the symbiosis between fungus-growing ants and their fungi. Science 266 (5191): 1691-1694.

Currie, C. R., B. Wong, A. E. Stuart, T. R. Schultz, S. A. Rehner, U. G. Mueller, G. H. Sung, J. W. Spatafora, and N. A. Straus. 2003. Ancient tripartite coevolution in the attine ant-microbe symbiosis. Science 299 (5605): 386-388.

Hölldobler, B. and E. O. Wilson. 1990. The Ants. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Lattke, J. E. 1999. A new species of fungus-growing ant and its implications for attine phylogeny. Systematic Entomology 24: 1-6.

Mueller, U. G., T. R. Schultz, C. R. Currie, R. M. Adams, and D. Malloch. 2001. The origin of the attine ant-fungus mutualism. Quarterly Review of Biology 76(2): 169-197.

Schultz, T. R. and R. Meier. 1995. A phylogenetic analysis of the fungus-growing ants based on morphological characters of the larvae. Systematic Entomology 20: 337-370.

Villesen, P., T. Murakami, T. R. Schultz, J. J. Boomsma. 2002. Identifying the transition between single and multiple mating of queens in fungus-growing ants. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences Series B 269 (1500): 1541-1548.

Wetterer, J. K., T. R. Schultz, and R. Meier. 1998. Phylogeny of fungus-growing ants (Tribe Attini) based on mtDNA sequence and morphology. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 9(1): 42-47.

Wheeler, G. C. & Wheeler, J. 1976. Ant larvae: review and synthesis. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Washington 74: 1-108.

Title Illustrations
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
Scientific Name Mycetophylax emeryi
Location Paraguay
Sex Female
Life Cycle Stage Worker
Copyright © 2003 Alex Wild
Scientific Name Atta cephalotes
Location Ecuador
Comments The smaller, minima worker riding on the leaf fragment protects the lower ant from attacks by phorid fly parasitoids.
Sex Female
Life Cycle Stage Workers
Copyright © 2003 Alex Wild
Scientific Name Acromyrmex octospinosus
Location Guatemala
Comments One of two genera of leafcutter ants
Sex Female
Life Cycle Stage Worker
Copyright © 2003 Alex Wild
About This Page

Page: Tree of Life Attini. Fungus-growing ants. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Tree of Life Web Project. 2004. Attini. Fungus-growing ants. Version 22 March 2004 (temporary). http://tolweb.org/Attini/22435/2004.03.22 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

edit this page
close box

This page is a Tree of Life Branch Page.

Each ToL branch page provides a synopsis of the characteristics of a group of organisms representing a branch of the Tree of Life. The major distinction between a branch and a leaf of the Tree of Life is that each branch can be further subdivided into descendent branches, that is, subgroups representing distinct genetic lineages.

For a more detailed explanation of the different ToL page types, have a look at the Structure of the Tree of Life page.

close box

Attini

Page Content

articles & notes

collections

people

Explore Other Groups

random page

  go to the Tree of Life home page
top