Leafcutter ant

Leafcutter ants are one of 41 species in either the genus Atta or Acromyrmex which live in the tropics of the western hemisphere, either in South America, Central America or in the southern United States They cut leaves into pieces and carry them into their nest to serve as a base to grow fungus which feeds the ant larvae in the nest and some of the adults. The nest has piles of freshly cut leaves and garbage dumps as well as fungus gardens. When ants leave their nests to remove leaves from a tree or bush they often make trails that can be as wide as the palm of your hand. Sometimes they will pass up several bushes of one kind to completely denude a certain bush, and then when the leaves grow back they take all the leaves again as if that one bush had a special attraction. Their nests enrich the soil by bringing organic matter deep into the soil.

Anatomy
Ants in one nest can have several different sizes. Soldier ants are largest, except for the queen, then worker ants, and small minima ants which do the fungus gardening and act as lookouts for the workers.

Reproduction
Each nest has only one queen which lays eggs for all the millions of individuals that eventually live in the nest. One estimate is that a forager ant will live for about 6 months while the queen lives for about 10 years. By multiple matings in nuptial flights, queens can store millions of sperm to last them their whole reproductive life. The male ants which are allowed to develop, develop from unfertilized eggs.

Ecology
In North America, the Acromyrmex ants tend to live in grasslands and dry areas while the Atta ants live in more forested areas.