With heruculean strength and a seemingly endless supply of energy, leafcutter ants flow in continuous streams along branches and across the forest floor, carrying massive leaf clippings several times their size. To our eyes, the little pieces of greenery seem like the perfect meal for these tiny ants. But to the ants, their cargo is not to be eaten. Rather, it is to be used for cultivating their favorite food—fungus.
Leafcutter ants are considered pioneers of farming. Indeed, they practically invented the concept of agriculture, cultivating fungus gardens long before humans ever existed. And they have always done their farming without sophisticated machinery, relying instead on their physical attributes—namely their serrated teeth and powerful mandibles, which vibrate at an astonishing 1,000 Hz (about 1,000 vibrations per second) while sawing off pieces of leaves.
Leafcutter ants on a tree trunk carry off part of a leaf. (Tim Flach—Stone/Getty Images)
Foraging and chopping up leaves form only one component of the rather complex agricultural system used by these ants. Once returned to their nests, they must chew the leaf clippings to remove contaminants and then “plant” the clippings in the fungus garden. They also rely on bacteria naturally occurring on their bodies to produce antibiotic substances that help keep the fungus in their gardens healthy.
Leafcutter ants do not cultivate just any fungus. They are specialists in the cultivation of species of Leucocoprinus and Leucoagaricus in particular, which have coevolved with leafcutters and are dependent on the ants for their growth and reproduction. Chemical signaling between ants and between the fungus and the ants plays a crucial role in successful cultivation. Leafcutter ants learn which plants to collect clippings from based on chemical signals released by the fungus in their nests. The ants then locate useful plants and establish pheromone trails that worker leafcutters follow to find their way between the plant and the nest.
The leafcutter ant Atta colombica. (Christian R. Linder)
Because each leafcutter colony houses millions of individuals, a significant proportion of which consists of workers, each pheromone trail becomes a veritable ant highway. And with so many ants in a colony, leafcutters also have a major impact on the ecosystems of the New World tropical and semi-tropical forests that they inhabit. In fact, leafcutter ants are the dominant herbivores in their habitats, and they facilitate seed dispersal and, through their pruning activity, stimulate plant growth.
Their caste system, which may diversify into as many as seven categories, helps leafcutter societies maintain an efficient balance in the proportions of ants assigned specific tasks. These tasks range from keeping peace in the colony, a job generally performed by soldiers, to laying millions of eggs—the job of the colony’s sole queen—to tending the fungus garden, typically the job of a subgroup of small workers, known as minima.
With this bustle of activity, leafcutter societies rank among the most complex in the insect world. Hence, each colony is very much a subterranean ant metropolis.
