Leafcutter ant

[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.

[4] Winged females and males leave their respective nests en masse and engage in a nuptial flight known as the revoada (Portuguese) or vuelo nupcial (Spanish).

Acromyrmex and Atta exhibit a high degree of polymorphism, four castes being present in established colonies—minims, minors, mediae, and majors.

The ants actively cultivate their fungus, feeding it with freshly cut plant material and keeping it free from pests and molds.

Leaf cutter ants are sensitive enough to adapt to the fungi's reaction to different plant material, apparently detecting chemical signals from the fungus.

[13] Their fungi produce nutritious and swollen hyphal tips (gongylidia) that grow in bundles called staphylae, to specifically feed the ants.

[17][18] In addition to feeding the fungal garden with foraged food, mainly consisting of leaves, it is protected from Escovopsis by the antibiotic secretions of Actinomycetota (genus Pseudonocardia).

[20] Leafcutter ants prefer disturbed habitats, likely due to higher concentrations of pioneer plant species.

These are more attractive food sources because pioneer plants have lower levels of secondary metabolites and higher nutrient concentrations than the shade-tolerant species that will come later.

[25] The most common known behaviors rely on workers reducing the number of fungal spores by grooming, or removing an infected piece of the fungus garden and throwing it away at the waste dump (described as weeding).

[26] In some parts of their range, leafcutter ants can be a serious agricultural pest, defoliating crops and damaging roads and farmland with their nest-making activities.