Figure 1.

Culture of the fungus and construction of the galleries. (a) Trichomes inside and outside a recently colonized domatium; (b) pellet made from plant material from the domatium close to the first eggs laid in the newly colonized domatium (arrow); (c) the founding queen scarifies the domatia wall (vertical arrow) where the first hyphae will grow in the suberous crust (horizontal arrow); (d) the growing fungus seals the entrance of the domatium until the first workers make an exit hole (arrow); (e) scaffold of trichomes; (f) highly scarified domatium; (g) the workers paste pellets made from the suberous crust of the domatia (arrows) on the frame of trichomes; and (h) the fungus grows from each of the pellets strengthening the galleries that the ants use as a trap (white arrow, trichomes; black arrow, pellets). Scale bar, 1 mm.