Leafcutter Ant Video

Leafcutter ants are exceptional ants. They construct large, complex nests. Each colony has a number of different worker castes performing a wide variety of tasks. Everything about leafcutter ants is done on a big scale.

Leafcutter ants are named for their habit of cutting out pieces of leaves and carrying the slices back to their nest in their mandibles. Workers process the leaves, spread the resulting paste in an underground garden area, and grow a specific species of fungus on it. Rather than eating the leaves, which may contain toxins, the ants eat the fungus instead. In fact, the fungus is so critical to leafcutter ant survival that the queen ants carry a bit of fungus with them when they go on their mating flights.

This video shows leafcutter ants in action.

Let me know what you think of leafcutter ants.