Leafcutter Ant
Leafcutter ants (Atta cephalotes) of tropical America march in columns carrying pieces of leaves, which they do not eat. They use them to grow a fungus, and farm it in huge underground gardens, an agricultural system that arose tens of millions of years ago.
Leafcutter ants (Atta cephalotes) of tropical America march in columns carrying pieces of leaves, which they do not eat. They use them to grow a fungus, and farm it in huge underground gardens, an agricultural system that arose tens of millions of years ago.
🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open Leafcutter Ant in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Ecdysozoa lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.
Fungus Farmers: What Do They Grow?
Workers chew the leaf fragments into a mulch and use it to feed a cultivated fungus, which in turn produces nutritious swollen tips that feed the colony. The ants and the fungus depend on each other completely. A single colony can contain millions of ants and consume as much vegetation as a cow.
Castes of Different Sizes
Workers vary greatly in size, from tiny gardeners to large soldiers. The smallest ride on leaf fragments carried by foragers to fend off parasitic flies.
Antibiotics on the Ants
Ants carry bacteria on their bodies that make antibiotics to fight a parasitic fungus, Escovopsis, that attacks the garden. This is an example of a symbiosis involving four partners. See Red Harvester Ant.
Leafcutter Ant at a Glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Atta cephalotes |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Arthropoda |
| Class | Insecta |
| Order | Hymenoptera |
| Family | Formicidae |
| Field Guide group | Ecdysozoa: Hexapoda (Insects) |
| Diagnostic feature (Field Guide) | Workers carry cut leaf pieces to underground gardens where they farm a fungus as food; colonies hold millions. |
| Fungus partner | Leucoagaricus gardens |
| Farming began | Tens of millions of years ago |
See Also
- Red Harvester Ant — another seed-harvesting ant
- Zombie Ant Fungus — a fungus that attacks ants