Atta cephalotes

Close-up of the head of a soldier leafcutter ant. The sharp mandibles of this ant can easily slice through skin, so handle with care! Captive colony at the California Academy of Sciences

Atta cephalotes

A busy trail of leafcutter ants carry the harvest along a well-worn trail. La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica

Atta cephalotes

Atta cephalotes soldier. Captive colony at the University of Illinois

Atta cephalotes

Atta cephalotes media and major workers. The caste system of leafcutter ants is complex, and nests contain many sizes of workers that perform different tasks. Captive colony at the University of Illinois

Atta cephalotes

Jatun Sacha, Napo, Ecuador

Atta cephalotes

A small leafcutter ant worker rides a leaf. Maquipucuna reserve, Pichincha, Ecuador

Atta cephalotes

A small worker atop a leaf guards her sister against attacks by parasitic flies. Ants laden with cargo cannot use their mandibles for defense, so they carry hitchhikers to ward off the parasites. Gamboa, Panama

Atta cephalotes

A media worker of Atta cephalotes finishes off a cut. Captive colony at the University of Texas

Atta cephalotes

Queen leafcutter ants (Atta cephalotes) are often so heavily attended by workers that they are scarcely visible under a mass of little ant bodies. At the top, a soldier stands guard. Laboratory colony at the University of Wisconsin

Atta cephalotes

A small leafcutter ant navigates the fungus garden. Note how the garden is structured into chambers. Laboratory colony at the University of Wisconsin

Atta cephalotes

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

Atta cephalotes

Atta cephalotes in the fungus garden. Here, the fungus is visible as a white mold growing across the cut leaves that the ants have fed to it. Captive colony at the California Academy of Sciences

Atta cephalotes

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. Captive colony at the University of Texas

Atta cephalotes

Atta cephalotes soldier. Captive colony at the University of Illinois.

Atta cephalotes

A mature leafcutter colony contains more than a million individual ants and can defoliate an entire tree overnight. Here a busy trail of Atta cephalotes carries cut vegetation back to the nest. Note the small ants riding atop the leaves- these stand guard against parasitic Phorid flies attempting to attack the preoccupied leaf-carriers. Tena, Ecuador

Atta cephalotes

A busy highway of leafcutter ants carrying their bounty back to the nest. Gamboa, Panama

Atta cephalotes

A small leafcutter worker atop a leaf guards her sister against attacks by parasitic flies. Ants carrying leaves cannot use their mandibles for defense, so they carry hitchhikers to ward off the parasites. Gamboa, Panama

Atta cephalotes

Maquipucuna reserve, Pichincha, Ecuador

Atta cephalotes

Soldier and worker ants in the fungus garden of an Atta cephalotes colony. Captive colony at the California Academy of Sciences

Atta cephalotes

Captive colony at the University of Texas

Atta cephalotes

In a laboratory nest, Atta cephalotes leafcutter ants tend to their fungus garden. University of Wisconsin at Madison

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

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 busy trail of leafcutter ants (Atta cephalotes) at the edge of a tropical pasture. Archidona, Napo, Ecuador