Acromyrmex echinatior Panama; Laboratory colony at the University of Wisconsin at Madison - Alex Wild Photography - Insect Photography

Acromyrmex

is the more diverse of the two leafcutting ant genera (the other is Atta). These distinctive spiny insects cut fresh vegetation to feed to a specialized fungus that grows only in ant nests. The fungus serves as the ants' food source and in return is cultivated and dispersed by the ants. Like all fungus-growing ants, Acromyrmex is found only in the new world tropics and subtropics.