Please do not copy and paste and answer from anther source P

Please do not copy and paste and answer from anther source. Please offer a brief explanation, I am having trouble understand the material, not finding the information.

Trace the evolution of leaf cutter fungiculture as shown in figure 1 of Schultz and Brady (2208).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2291119/figure/F1/

Solution

The Obligate mutualism between leafcutter ants and Attamyces fungi has its origin some 8 to 12 million years ago in the tropical regions. Agriculture is a specialized form of symbiosis that has evolved in four animal groups namely, humans, bark beetles, termites, and ants. The evolution of leaf cutter fungiculture can be explained with five distinct agricultural systems of the fungus-growing ants. The fungus-growing ants are non-human agriculturalists. The evolution of leaf cutter fungiculture can be constructed based on the first fossil-calibrated, based on multiple-gene, and also based on molecular phylogeny that incorporates the full range of taxonomic diversity within the fungus-growing an tribe Attini.

From the analysis, it came to know that the original form of ant agriculture and the cultivation of diverse sebset of fungal species has evolved about 50 million years ago in Neotropics. During the past 30 years, three known ant agricultural systems, each of which have a distinct phylogenetic set of derived fungal cultivars, have arised separately from the original agricultural system. Of these three sets, one set has given rise to the fifth known system of agriculture. In this new agricultural system, a single fungal species is cultivated by leaf cutter ants. Thus, leaf-cutter ants have evolved recently around 8 - 12 million years ago and have become the dominant herbivores of the tropical regions.