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Mycetosoritis hartmanni
Texas, USA

photograph © Alex Wild 2007

 The underground architecture of fungus-growing ant nests is different from that of most other ants.  Instead of a maze of smaller chambers, most attine ants tend to have relatively few large, rounded chambers where the ants cultivate their fungus.  This nest of Mycetosoritis- one of the smallest of the fungus-growing species- has two chambers in vertical alignment, the deeper one is about 1/2 meter below the surface. Notice at the far right of the photo an old chamber from a defunct colony. 

USA TX Bastrop Co.: 8 km NNW Smithville
140m 30º05.1´N 97º10.1´W 
22.iii.2007 Oak-Pine forest, nest in sandy soil.  #ALW2901


This image is copyrighted by the photographer and cannot be used without permission. To obtain permission to use this image, please email Alex Wild. (alwild (at) myrmecos.net).  Most of the photographs on myrmecos.net are reduced from their original size and compressed for more efficient web transmission.  In some cases, higher quality versions are available.

This image was captured with a Canon EOS 20D, using a Canon 50mm f1.8 lens.