How could had leaf-cutter ants evolved “fungus farming”?
It’s not unreasonable for the relationship to have developed in a stepwise manner. The evolution of complex social and colonial life almost certainly occurred in the ants’ ancestors prior to the evolution of fungus cultivation, so only some minor, sequential tweaking would be necessary to produce a colony conducive to raising fungus. Furthermore, not all of it need be genetic. Ants may not possess the same degree of cultural sophistication that we do, but they aren’t mindless automatons. I can actually envisage the ancestors of modern leaf-cutter ants possessing almost all the tools necessary to harvest fungus full-time. Being able to properly vent a colony of carbon dioxide and bring in fresh oxygen is necessary for all types of ants; fungus may boost the oxygen use and carbon dioxide output of a colony, but ants do this anyway without sharing living quarters with fungus. So really, you’d just need to add a few more openings to the surface, something that doesn’t need rigid genetic pr
