The early life of a leaf-cutter colony constrains symbiont vertical transmission

The early life of a leaf-cutter colony is characterized by the dispersal of a female alate (winged “queen”) carrying a fungal pellet, and the subsequent establishment of a foundress (workerless “queen”) raising her incipient fungal garden and colony. The symbiotic roach Attaphila fungicola hitchhikes on female alates during leaf-cutter nuptial flights, which strongly suggests that roaches are vertically transmitted to foundresses and their incipient colonies; however, weak compatibility between roaches and incipient gardens may constrain roach vertical transmission. This dataset contains data from an experiment in which the mortality of incipient fungal gardens and foundresses were scored in treatments with or without Attaphila roaches. Additionally, in roach trials we noted whether or not the roaches disturbed fungal gardens during observational bouts conducted during the experiment (see below for more detailed description of behavioral observations). Contrary to traditional assumptions, our results indicate that roaches harm incipient gardens, suggesting that roaches are not well adapted to use vertical transmission between colonies.