PHYLOGENY OF FUNGUS-GROWING ANTS (TRIBE ATTINI) BASED ON MTDNA SEQUENCE AND MORPHOLOGY

We examined the phylogenetic relationships among taxa of attine or ''f ungus-growing'' ants (Tribe Attini) using parsimony analyses of molecu lar and morphological data. We sequenced a region of mitochondrial DNA from 13 taxa of attines and from one closely related outgroup species , Wasmannia auropunctata. Our study sequence included the 3' end of th e cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (CO I) locus (183 to 198 total sites; 91 informative sites), an intergenic spacer region of variable size ( 0 to 152 sites), the tRNA leucine locus (65 to 74 sites), and the 5' e nd of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit II (co II) locus (292 total sit es; 140 informative sites). The inferred relationships among the attin e taxa based on an unweighted analysis of the nucleotide sequence data closely matched the relationships inferred from an analysis of larval morphological characters from 11 of the taxa. In fact, the inferred r elationships were completely congruent among the protein parsimony ana lysis of amino acid data, the morphology analysis, and ''total evidenc e'' analysis combining the amino acid and morphology data. The congrue nt conclusions we obtained from two independent data sets increases ou r confidence in the reliability of our analyses. (C) 1998 Academic Pre ss.