Fungus For Fungus: Acromyrmex rugosus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) collecting on Gymnopilus cf. peliolepis (Agaricales: Hymenogastraceae) in a Brazilian dry forest

Edna Karolyne Nascimento Santos; Rony  Peterson Santos Almeida; Felipe Wartchow; Mário Herculano de Oliveira

doi:10.30550/j.azl/2087

Autores/as

Edna Karolyne Nascimento Santos Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Estadual da Paraíba, Paraíba, Brazil https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2919-6852
Rony Peterson Santos Almeida Departamento de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Sergipe, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0681-0357
Felipe Wartchow Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Departamento de Sistemática e Ecologia, Paraíba, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4930-565X
Mário Herculano de Oliveira Universidade Estadual da Paraíba https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7015-4350

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30550/j.azl/2087

Palabras clave:

Attini, ants, foraging, Basidiomycota fungi

Resumen

This short note is a report of Acromyrmex rugosus collecting a slice of mushroom during its foraging. This behavior was already described for other Acromyrmex species, but our register of A. rugosus collecting Gymnopilus cf. peliolepis is unprecedented and present insights about this behavior. The ants collected were close to a nest of Atta sexdens. This is the first register of this behavior in these farming-ants from areas of Caatinga, with previous records only from the South and Southeastern regions of Brazil. Thus, future studies are needed to understand the benefits of ants belonging to A. rugosus to transport fungal species different from those cultivated by them, and we suspect that this foraging mode probably increase the dispersal of G. cf. peliolepis.

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