Myco and her sisters have evolved into a rather strange
social system: There are no male ants at all, only female.
And so they reproduce via cloning. It seems that they
have also turned out to be incredibly successful as farmers.
This is not unusual, as there are many tribes of ant that
keep domesticated farms. But Myco and her sisters, seem
to be far more successful at cultivating a greater variety
of fungi, on there farms. It is possible that they evolved
this way, so as not to operate under the usual constraints
of sexual reproduction. There sexual organs over a period
of time have virtually disappeared. Interestingly,
the fungi that the ants cultivate also reproduce asexually.
It is therefor strange why the ants should choose to copy
the reproductive features of there crops. The one over riding fact is, it avoids the energetic cost of producing males, and doubles the number of reproductive females produced each generation from 50% to 100% of the offspring. It seems that a lack of men gave these women more time and energy to cultivate some of the most elaborate ant agriculture seen to date.
BOOK ONE
BOOK TWO
Mycocepurus Smithii, from the Amazonian region of South America
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