Nomadic ants hunt mushrooms
Newly discovered ant lifestyle is one of roaming and picking
By Susan Milius
No anthills. Just a place to stay for a while, and then it’s off wherever the next mushroom leads.
Colonies of Euprenolepis procera live a lifestyle new to ant science, according to Volker Witte of Ludwig-MaximiliansUniversity in Munich. The ants move nomadically around rainforests at night in Malaysia, hunting and gathering mushrooms.
Such patchy food makes life tricky, but the ants seem to have adapted to the problems, say Witte and Ulrich Maschwitz of Johann-Wolfgang-GoetheUniversity in Frankfurt in an upcoming issue of the journal Naturwissenschaften.