LEAF CUTTER ANT Atta cephalotes Arthropod Order Hymenoptera Description A relatively large ant with a spiny body and long legs. The workers range from 1/10 to 1/2 inch in size. The males are 1/2 inch, and the queens may measure up to one inch long. Range Central and South America. North to south Texas. Status Habitat destruction is the ants only serious threat. Photo © Greg Neise

Ecology Habitat Tropical rain forests.   Niche Diurnal, nocturnal and mainly subterran an living in the basement of the forest floor, up to 12 feet below the tree roots. Life History Worker ants crawl to the surface to collect leaves. Being very selective about the species of leaves they collect, causes these ants to travel several hundred yards on leaf gathering expeditions. The ants leave an invisible scent on the trails they use in order to find their way home. Once back at the colony, the workers chew the leaves into a pulp, making a bed of fertilizer on which a special type of fungus is grown. This fungus is not found anywhere outside the Atta colonies. The genus Atta cultivates several kinds of fungus, but each individual species sticks to one kind. Special Adaptations Leaf cutter ants take dead ants and other waste to an underground dump site or to a trash dump above ground. This waste is nutrientrich and is quickly recycled in the forest. These ants collect leaves from all layers of the forest, from the upper canopy to the forest floor. Their method of leaf gathering prevents trees ouside the colony from being stripped bare like the ones inside the colony's immediate vicinity.