It turns out that fungus growing termites sometimes cultivate Termitomyces titanicus.
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@futurebird funeral umbrella
The size says something about what the termites created. An empire!
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It's never really found just living on its own without ants to take care of it?
Ants keep it clean, set the correct humidity, feed it plant matter...
In fact, many antkeepers have tried to farm it (so they have extra fungi for their pet ants) and it's basically been impossible for people to do it, even with clean rooms, carefully cut leaves and humidity chambers.
It's totally dependent on ants.
Now... could it maybe float as spores and join an existing ant colony? Maybe? IDK
@futurebird I wonder if you can sample the genetics of colonies and their fungus to work out if the lines of descent always match
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It turns out that fungus growing termites sometimes cultivate Termitomyces titanicus. This is an excellent scientific name.
CORRECTION:
I assumed they had to work like ants. Wrong! (A fruiting body would only emerge from a dead ant colony not so with these termites) Something about macrotermitinaes nuptial flights stimulates mushroom fruiting. (!) They get covered in pink spores.And you can eat it!
Hence the species name.
@futurebird The mushroom is cool, but also kinda sad.
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It turns out that fungus growing termites sometimes cultivate Termitomyces titanicus. This is an excellent scientific name.
CORRECTION:
I assumed they had to work like ants. Wrong! (A fruiting body would only emerge from a dead ant colony not so with these termites) Something about macrotermitinaes nuptial flights stimulates mushroom fruiting. (!) They get covered in pink spores.And you can eat it!
Hence the species name.
-
It turns out that fungus growing termites sometimes cultivate Termitomyces titanicus. This is an excellent scientific name.
CORRECTION:
I assumed they had to work like ants. Wrong! (A fruiting body would only emerge from a dead ant colony not so with these termites) Something about macrotermitinaes nuptial flights stimulates mushroom fruiting. (!) They get covered in pink spores.And you can eat it!
Hence the species name.
@futurebird there's a humongus fungus among us.
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@futurebird The mushroom is cool, but also kinda sad.
Why sad?
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Why sad?
@kevinrns @futurebird It means a colony has died.
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Why sad?
termite empire is fallen
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termite empire is fallen
Ahh. Ozymandias.
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@futurebird I wonder if you can sample the genetics of colonies and their fungus to work out if the lines of descent always match
I've been slowly reading this paper on the genetics of the crops of various ants. At lest per genus there isn't much crossover. And even per species.
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termite empire is fallen
Look upon my works ye mighty
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It turns out that fungus growing termites sometimes cultivate Termitomyces titanicus. This is an excellent scientific name.
CORRECTION:
I assumed they had to work like ants. Wrong! (A fruiting body would only emerge from a dead ant colony not so with these termites) Something about macrotermitinaes nuptial flights stimulates mushroom fruiting. (!) They get covered in pink spores.And you can eat it!
Hence the species name.
@futurebird@sauropods.win damn that could feed a lot of people
also didn't know termites and ants 'farm' but makes perfect sense -
Look upon my works ye mighty
The great mushroom is a tribute to the termites. Announcing they recently sent out a nuptial flight. (corrected)
(Often when you see mushrooms it means that the Mycelium, the living fungi has reached the end of its life.
Somehow this isn't the case with Macrotermitinae and Termitomyces titanicus. I will need to think about how this is possible.)
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It's never really found just living on its own without ants to take care of it?
Ants keep it clean, set the correct humidity, feed it plant matter...
In fact, many antkeepers have tried to farm it (so they have extra fungi for their pet ants) and it's basically been impossible for people to do it, even with clean rooms, carefully cut leaves and humidity chambers.
It's totally dependent on ants.
Now... could it maybe float as spores and join an existing ant colony? Maybe? IDK
@futurebird @PetraOleum i used to work on this in grad school - hard fungus to collect!
The fungus packs the hyphal swelling that it feeds to the ants with enzymes to degrade plant material. The ants eat the hyphal swellings, and then defacate on fresh plant material as they bring it into a nest. This is perhaps one reason why the fungus can't live alone now - it needs the ants to pre-treat the leaves with these enzymes in order to grow efficiently. Bizarre stuff!
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The great mushroom is a tribute to the termites. Announcing they recently sent out a nuptial flight. (corrected)
(Often when you see mushrooms it means that the Mycelium, the living fungi has reached the end of its life.
Somehow this isn't the case with Macrotermitinae and Termitomyces titanicus. I will need to think about how this is possible.)
@futurebird @kevinrns @michaelgemar I would like to hear more about this.
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The fungi farmed by ants (Leucoagaricus gongylophorus) also produces mushrooms when their colonies die out. This fungi can't survive without the ants and the ants propagate it by carrying it with them when they found new nests:
So what is the purpose of the mushrooms?
Is it just a hold-over from the days before the fungi was dependent on ants?
I've been trying to find out if you can eat the ones that grow on old ant nests.
myrmepropagandist (@futurebird@sauropods.win)
Attached: 1 image I had NO IDEA that Atta fungus could fruit. Can people eat it? The ants have optimized the fungus for protein, sugars, amino acids. It's a super food for ants, which might not sound relevant to people, but humans & ants have a lot in common when it comes to diet. We both need high calorie density foods. The typical ant diet of insects & sugars is pretty nutritious. Probably not what we'd call tasty. I really need some mushroom expert to find out if we can eat that fungus. It's very special.
Sauropods.win (sauropods.win)
@futurebird I agree that the purpose of the mushroom, the fruiting body, is likely an attempt to produce spores that could blow away and start a new cycle; a desperate act to survive and pass on DNA still locked into the fungus' code. Since there's apparently no down-side it wouldn't have evolved out.
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The fungi farmed by ants (Leucoagaricus gongylophorus) also produces mushrooms when their colonies die out. This fungi can't survive without the ants and the ants propagate it by carrying it with them when they found new nests:
So what is the purpose of the mushrooms?
Is it just a hold-over from the days before the fungi was dependent on ants?
I've been trying to find out if you can eat the ones that grow on old ant nests.
myrmepropagandist (@futurebird@sauropods.win)
Attached: 1 image I had NO IDEA that Atta fungus could fruit. Can people eat it? The ants have optimized the fungus for protein, sugars, amino acids. It's a super food for ants, which might not sound relevant to people, but humans & ants have a lot in common when it comes to diet. We both need high calorie density foods. The typical ant diet of insects & sugars is pretty nutritious. Probably not what we'd call tasty. I really need some mushroom expert to find out if we can eat that fungus. It's very special.
Sauropods.win (sauropods.win)
@futurebird In both cases it seems to me the fruiting body would produce spores, and given the right weather conditions, those spores could potentially find a new colony of either appropriate termites in the first case or appropriate ants in the second case. A last-ditch effort to continue, if you will. If this can't work for some reason - I would like to know why.
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It turns out that fungus growing termites sometimes cultivate Termitomyces titanicus. This is an excellent scientific name.
CORRECTION:
I assumed they had to work like ants. Wrong! (A fruiting body would only emerge from a dead ant colony not so with these termites) Something about macrotermitinaes nuptial flights stimulates mushroom fruiting. (!) They get covered in pink spores.And you can eat it!
Hence the species name.
@futurebird I love a descriptive latin name like that.
I've got a plant called Rhodocactus grandifolium, which just means big-leaf rose cactus
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The great mushroom is a tribute to the termites. Announcing they recently sent out a nuptial flight. (corrected)
(Often when you see mushrooms it means that the Mycelium, the living fungi has reached the end of its life.
Somehow this isn't the case with Macrotermitinae and Termitomyces titanicus. I will need to think about how this is possible.)
@futurebird @kevinrns A tangent, but a mushroom may be the largest organism on earth:
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The fungi farmed by ants (Leucoagaricus gongylophorus) also produces mushrooms when their colonies die out. This fungi can't survive without the ants and the ants propagate it by carrying it with them when they found new nests:
So what is the purpose of the mushrooms?
Is it just a hold-over from the days before the fungi was dependent on ants?
I've been trying to find out if you can eat the ones that grow on old ant nests.
myrmepropagandist (@futurebird@sauropods.win)
Attached: 1 image I had NO IDEA that Atta fungus could fruit. Can people eat it? The ants have optimized the fungus for protein, sugars, amino acids. It's a super food for ants, which might not sound relevant to people, but humans & ants have a lot in common when it comes to diet. We both need high calorie density foods. The typical ant diet of insects & sugars is pretty nutritious. Probably not what we'd call tasty. I really need some mushroom expert to find out if we can eat that fungus. It's very special.
Sauropods.win (sauropods.win)
"gongylophorus" isn't a bad name for the fungi of the Atta. The ants have domesticated them to make gongylidia which are like little underground ant treats that form on the mycelium. So it's a gongylophorus fungi, or a fungi that make gelatinous translucent protein packed ant treats.
And we think we are so slick with our beans and corn and apples.
