A Texas Leafcutter Ant (Atta texana) carries a cut leaf. Ants do not eat the leaves directly; rather, they use to leaves to feed an underground fungus that serves as the ants' primary food source. Austin, Texas, USA - Alex Wild Photography - Insect Photography

Farming Ants: Leafcutters and Fungus Growers

Hundreds of ant species live as farmers in the warmer regions of North and South America. These insects- a single evolutionary radiation- cultivate an edible fungus fed with bits of vegetative debris, or in the case of the leafcutter ants, with live vegetation.

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Apterostigma auriculatum fungus-growing ants are true agriculturalists. They subsist on a fungus they cultivate with bits of collected detritus.

Panama; Laboratory colony at the University of Texas

Apterostigma auriculatum

Panama; Laboratory colony at the University of Texas

In a laboratory nest, Atta cephalotes leafcutter ants tend to their fungus garden.

University of Wisconsin at Madison

An Atta laevigata soldier advances on the photographer. These giant ants are specialized for nest defense, and their bite easily draws blood.

Carrancas, Minas Gerais, Brazil

A queen leafcutter ant (Atta texana) dwarfs her daughter workers.

Captive colony at the University of Texas

Major and minor workers of Atta cephalotes demonstrating the size extremes among worker ants in a single leafcutter ant colony.

Captive colony at the University of Illinois

A busy highway of Atta cephalotes leafcutter ants carrying their bounty back to the nest.

Gamboa, Panama

A Texas Leafcutter Ant (Atta texana) carries a cut leaf. Ants do not eat the leaves directly; rather, they use to leaves to feed an underground fungus that serves as the ants' primary food source.

Austin, Texas, USA

Canon EOS 20D |

More details: exif |

Original size: 2932x2208 |

Current: 797x600 |

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Farming Ants: Leafcutters and Fungus Growers

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