The Diversity of across the Turtle Ants (Formicidae: spp.).

is a widespread and well-known bacterium that can induce a wide range of changes within its host. Ants specifically harbor a great deal of diversity and are useful systems to study endosymbiosis. The turtle ants () are a widespread group of tropical ants that rely on gut microbes to support their herbivorous diet for their survival, yet little is known of the extent of this diversity. Therefore, studying their endosymbionts and categorizing the diversity of bacteria within hosts could help to delimit species and identify new strains and can help lead to a further understanding of how the microbiome leads to survival and speciation in the wild. In our study, 116 individual samples were initially tested for positive infection with the gene. Of the initial 116 samples, 9 samples were infected with only one strain of , and 7 were able to be used successfully for multilocus sequence typing (MLST). We used the new MLST data to infer a phylogeny with other Formicidae samples from the MLST online database to identify new strains and related genes, of which only one came back as an exact match. The 18 -positive samples ranged across 15 different species and 7 different countries, which we further test for species identity and geographic correlation. This study is the first comprehensive look into the diversity of in the turtle ants, providing insight into how endosymbionts are oriented in widespread species and providing a strong foundation for further research in host-microbe interactions.