@kevinrns @michaelgemar

termite empire is fallen

@futurebird @kevinrns @michaelgemar giant mushrooms over human cities also herald the fall of our empires

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 That's a big frickin mushroom!

@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.

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.

@faithisleaping

To make an omelet you need like six ostrich eggs.

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 @kevinrns @michaelgemar giant mushrooms over human cities also herald the fall of our empires

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.

I've been reading about this mushroom and everyone says it's *really* delicious. But, you just need to luck out to try it. It's not really possible to cultivate it.

When a termite colony has a nuptial flight you may get a few to share with the town.

(corrected the reason for fruiting, which is different than in leaf cutting ants. )

@futurebird ...this suggests a fictitious future setting where farmers raise insect colonies not because the insects make an excellent source of protein, but because their agriculture turns out to produce great food for us, too. (I mean, we already do this for honey, right?)

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.

@PetraOleum

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

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 @PetraOleum huh, a totally domesticated crop that isn't cultivated by humans

@futurebird @PetraOleum huh, a totally domesticated crop that isn't cultivated by humans

@futurebird @starwall ants are amazing, it is known

Are there any domesticated aphid species that can't live without their farmers, I wonder

@PetraOleum @starwall

Not aphids that I know of, but there is a species of scale insect that is deeply dependent on Acropyga who keeps them underground on plant roots. These ants are cryptic and carry a pregnant scale insect in their mandibles with them when they start a new colony.

Just a moment...

(www.antwiki.org)