A busy trail of leafcutter ants (Atta cephalotes) at the edge of a tropical pasture. Archidona, Napo, Ecuador - Alex Wild Photography - Insect Photography

Atta

is the most conspicuous leaf-cutting ant of the new world tropics and subtropics. These large, spiny insects are farmers- they use freshly cut vegetation to cultivate a fungus in subterranean gardens. Colonies are among the most complex insect societies known: nests can persist for decades and contain over a million individuals.