[Animals] Leafcutter Ant Wiki

[Aronus]

Leafcutter ants are fungus-growing ants that share the behaviour of cutting leaves which they carry back to their nests to farm fungus. Next to humans, leafcutter ants form some of the largest and most complex animal societies on Earth. In a few years, the central mound of their underground nests can grow to more than 30 m (98 ft) across, with smaller radiating mounds extending out to a radius of 80 m (260 ft), taking up 30 to 600 m2 (320 to 6,460 sq ft) and converted into 3.55 m individuals.

Leafcutter ants are any of at least 55 species[1][2][3] of leaf-chewing ants belonging to the three genera Atta, Acromyrmex, and Amoimyrmex, within the tribe Attini.[4] These species of tropical, fungus-growing ants are all endemic to South and Central America, Mexico, and parts of the southern United States.[5] Leafcutter ants can carry twenty times their body weight[6] and cut and process fresh vegetation (leaves, flowers, and grasses) to serve as the nutritional substrate for their fungal cultivates.[7]

Acromyrmex and Atta ants have much in common anatomically; however, the two can be identified by their external differences. Atta ants have three pairs of spines and a smooth exoskeleton on the upper surface of the thorax, while Acromyrmex ants have four pairs and a rough exoskeleton.[8] The exoskeleton itself is covered in a thin layer of mineral coating, composed of rhombohedral crystals that are generated by the ants.[9] Amoimyrmex and Acromyrmex differ in that Amoimyrmex lacks tubercles on the first gastral segment, and recent phylogenetic evidence shows that Amoimyrmex diverged before the other two genera of leafcutter ants.[4]

 

 

Leafcutter ant - Wikipedia