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Fungus-gardening (attine) ants grow fungus for food in protected gardens, which contain beneficial, auxiliary microbes, but also microbes harmful to gardens. Among these potentially pathogenic microorganisms, the most consistently isolated are fungi in the genus  Escovopsis , which are thought to co-evolve with ants and their cultivar in a tripartite model. To test clade-to-clade correspondence between  Escovopsis  and ants in the higher attine symbiosis (including leaf-cutting and non-leaf-cutting ants), we amassed a geographically comprehensive collection of  Escovopsis  from Mexico to southern Brazil, and reconstructed the corresponding  Escovopsis  phylogeny. Contrary to previous analyses reporting phylogenetic divergence between  Escovopsis  from leafcutters and  Trachymyrmex  ants (non-leafcutter), we found no evidence for such specialization; rather, gardens from leafcutters and non-leafcutters genera can sometimes be infected by closely related strains of  Escovopsis , suggesting switches at higher phylogenetic levels than previously reported within the higher attine symbiosis. Analyses identified rare  Escovopsis  strains that might represent biogeographically restricted endemic species. Phylogenetic patterns correspond to morphological variation of vesicle type (hyphal structures supporting spore-bearing cells), separating  Escovopsis  with phylogenetically derived cylindrical vesicles from ancestral  Escovopsis  with globose vesicles. The new phylogenetic insights provide an improved basis for future taxonomic and ecological studies of  Escovopsis .

Shared Escovopsis parasites between leaf-cutting and non-leaf-cutting ants in the higher attine fungus-growing ant symbiosis