A Texas Leafcutter Ant (Atta texana) carrying a leaf back to her nest, where it will be fodder for the fungus that sustains the ants. 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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Atta texana. Ants slice through leaves using a repeated scissoring motion, where the leading mandible (on the right) is anchored into the leaf and pulls the trailing mandible to make the cut.

Austin, Texas, USA

The chaco leafcutter ant Atta vollenweideri forms the largest colonies of any social animal on earth. Mature nests such as the mound pictured here may contain several million ants.

Resistencia, Chaco, Argentina

A Texas Leafcutter Ant (Atta texana) carrying a leaf back to her nest, where it will be fodder for the fungus that sustains the ants.

Austin, Texas, USA

A media worker of Atta cephalotes finishes off a cut.

Captive colony at the University of Texas

Leafcutter ants make characteristic circular cuts. Here an ant completes the curve. (Atta cephalotes)

Captive colony at the University of Texas

Atta cephalotes leafcutter ants are true agriculturalists, farming an edible fungus (visible here as a white mold) in underground chambers.

Captive colony at the California Academy of Sciences

A large Atta sexdens worker cuts through a leaf while a smaller worker guards against the overzealous photographer.

Captive colony at the University of Texas

A Texas Leafcutter Ant (Atta texana) carrying a leaf back to her nest, where it will be fodder for the fungus that sustains the ants.

Austin, Texas, USA

Canon EOS 20D |

More details: exif |

Original size: 2165x2856 |

Current: 455x600 |

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Farming Ants: Leafcutters and Fungus Growers

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