An Old World leaf‐cutting, fungus‐growing ant: A case of convergent evolution

Overview & Synopsis

The African myrmicine ant Crematogaster clariventris is a territorially dominant arboreal species that constructs very hard carton nests. Noting that workers cut off leaves from different plant species while building or repairing their nests, we asked ourselves if there was a correlation. We conducted scanning electron microscopic observations of nest walls that revealed the presence of fungal mycelia. As the presence of filamentous Ascomycota has been shown on arboreal ant nests worldwide, we used a metabarcoding approach and, indeed, noted the presence of Operational Taxonomic