ABSTRACT
Fungus-growing termites (subfamily Macrotermitinae, Termitidae) comprise one of three unrelated groups of insects that have evolved obligatory digestive exosymbioses with ›lamentous fungi. The other two groups are the fungusgrowing ants (tribe Attini, Myrmicinae, Hymenoptera) and ambrosia beetles (subfamilies Scolytinae and Platypodinae, Curculionidae, Coleoptera), respectively. In ambrosia beetles, fungus cultivation has evolved independently several times within different lineages, whereas in termites and in ants the transitions to fungus cultivation have occurred only once, thus resulting in monophyletic fungus-growing clades of host insects (Mueller et al. 2005).
