Amazing Ants Game
Leafcutter
ants
Genus:
Atta or Acromyrmex
Although their common name suggests that leafcutter ants live off of leaves, they don't eat them. The ants scissor off pieces of fresh leaves using their sharp mandibles and carry them back to their nest, where smaller workers chew up the leaves and make a mixture that includes some of their own feces. On this bed of vegetable fertilizer, the ants cultivate a certain kind of fungus. Found only within ant colonies, this fungus feeds the leafcutters, which in turn ensure the fungus's survival. When a new leafcutter queen sets off to start her own colony, she brings along a starter-culture of the fungus.