With Help from Bacteria, Ants Fix Nitrogen (1 of 5) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

With Help from Bacteria, Ants Fix Nitrogen (1 of 5)

Caption

A leaf-cutter ant queen tends to her fungus garden, surrounded by her brood. These ants grow a fungus which feeds the entire colony. The queen can live up to 15 years and produce enough eggs to maintain a colony of 2-5 million workers. This image relates to an article that appeared in the Nov. 20 issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. Adrian Pinto-Tomas of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and colleagues was titled, "Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation in the Fungus Gardens of Leaf-Cutter Ants."

Credit

[Photo courtesy Michael Poulsen, © <i>Science</i>/AAAS]

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