Small farmers. (Letters).

Publication: Natural History

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COPYRIGHT 2003 Natural History Magazine, Inc.

Jessie Gunnard, Andrew Wier, and Lynn Margulis ["Mycological Maestros," 5/03], having discovered that some populations of the termite Heterotermes tenuis consume spores of the fungus Delortia palmicola, suggest the termite might be a "missing link" to the higher termites that farm Termitomyces as their sole food source.

But the behavior of H. tenuis is not unique: many nonfarming termite species feed on fungus-infested wood. Because H. tenuis (of the family Rhinotermitidae) is not a direct ancestor of the Macrotermitinae, the "incipient farming" in H. tenuis is analogous, rather than homologous, to the elaborate fungus farming in the Macrotermitinae (a possibility the authors themselves raise).

Moreover, a "missing link" position for the South American H. tenuis is at odds with the supposedly African origin of fungus farming in termites. Likewise, for the fungi a...

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