Editing Ant (section)

===Cultivation of food===
{{Main|Ant–fungus mutualism}}
[[Image:HoneyAnt.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Myrmecocystus]]'', [[honeypot ant]]s, store food to prevent colony famine.]]
Most ants are generalist predators, [[scavenger]]s, and indirect [[herbivore]]s,<ref name=riseofants/> but a few have evolved specialised ways of obtaining nutrition. It is believed that many ant species that engage in indirect herbivory rely on specialized symbiosis with their gut microbes<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Anderson KE, Russell JA, Moreau CS, Kautz S, Sullam KE, Hu Y, Basinger U, Mott BM, Buck N, Wheeler DE | title = Highly similar microbial communities are shared among related and trophically similar ant species | journal = Molecular Ecology | volume = 21 | issue = 9 | pages = 2282–2296 | date = May 2012 | pmid = 22276952 | doi = 10.1111/j.1365-294x.2011.05464.x | bibcode = 2012MolEc..21.2282A | s2cid = 32534515 }}</ref> to upgrade the nutritional value of the food they collect<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Feldhaar H, Straka J, Krischke M, Berthold K, Stoll S, Mueller MJ, Gross R | title = Nutritional upgrading for omnivorous carpenter ants by the endosymbiont Blochmannia | journal = BMC Biology | volume = 5 | pages = 48 | date = October 2007 | pmid = 17971224 | pmc = 2206011 | doi = 10.1186/1741-7007-5-48 | doi-access = free }}</ref> and allow them to survive in nitrogen poor regions, such as rainforest canopies.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Russell JA, Moreau CS, Goldman-Huertas B, Fujiwara M, Lohman DJ, Pierce NE | title = Bacterial gut symbionts are tightly linked with the evolution of herbivory in ants | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 106 | issue = 50 | pages = 21236–21241 | date = December 2009 | pmid = 19948964 | pmc = 2785723 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.0907926106 | bibcode = 2009PNAS..10621236R | doi-access = free }}</ref> [[Leafcutter ant]]s (''[[Atta (genus)|Atta]]'' and ''[[Acromyrmex]]'') feed exclusively on a [[fungus]] that grows only within their colonies. They continually collect leaves which are taken to the colony, cut into tiny pieces and placed in fungal gardens. Ergates specialise in related tasks according to their sizes. The largest ants cut stalks, smaller workers chew the leaves and the smallest tend the fungus. Leafcutter ants are sensitive enough to recognise the reaction of the fungus to different plant material, apparently detecting chemical signals from the fungus. If a particular type of leaf is found to be toxic to the fungus, the colony will no longer collect it. The ants feed on structures produced by the fungi called ''[[gongylidia]]''. [[Symbiosis|Symbiotic]] bacteria on the exterior surface of the ants produce antibiotics that kill bacteria introduced into the nest that may harm the fungi.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Nature|year=1999|volume=398|title=Ants, plants and antibiotics|author=Schultz TR|pages=747–748 | doi = 10.1038/19619|issue=6730 |url=http://www.insecta.ufv.br/Entomologia/ent/disciplina/ban%20160/AULAP/aula2/AntsandBacteria.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.insecta.ufv.br/Entomologia/ent/disciplina/ban%20160/AULAP/aula2/AntsandBacteria.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|bibcode = 1999Natur.398..747S |s2cid=5167611|doi-access=free}}</ref>