The queen ant is the hearth of the ant burrow and is the mother of all the others. Often a minim will sit on the worker ant and protects it from parasitic pest attacks. There are four ant castes present in established colonies: minims, minors, workers and soldiers (the soldier ants are also known as majors or dinergates). Size and functional difference is determined by its specialized food while at larval stage. They are divided into castes, based mostly on size, that perform different functions. The ant hill formed by the accumulation of material extracted from the internal cavities, and the ant wastes area brought from everywhere into the colony, can be used as a very quality organic fertilizer in human farming.Ī mature leaf cutter colony can contain more than 7 million ants, mostly sterile female workers. This ant activity is much like humans farm crops as a food source, and the leaf cutter ants and fungi are dependent on each other for survival, making this fact a good example of mutualistic symbiosis (mutual benefit interdependence).ĭespite the potential damage that leaf cutter ants can made to valuable plants, they can be very useful.
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The ants actively cultivate their fungus, feeding it with freshly-cut plant material, saliva and feces as well as protecting and maintaining it free from certain pests and molds capable of damage it. The fungus grows developing a spongy contexture and white coloration (similar to bread) of 15-30 cm, whose hyphal swellings (called " gongylidia") have inflated tips on which ants feed (because of their richness in lipids and carbohydrates derived from the leaves). Leaf cutter ants can be seen in large trails, as if parading, through the Costa Rica tropical rainforest ground on work by carrying cargo (the cut leaves bits by the workers ants) to their nests, where it will be chewed by other worker ants, mixed with their own saliva and feces, and mulched into compost or fertilizer to farm a specialized fungus. The leaf cutter ant queen can live more than 20 years. The leaf cutter ant queen can be 2 inches in size. The queen ant permanently cared and attended by custodians. The queen ant is the hearth of the ant burrow ant and is the mother of all the others because of its millions of eggs. Leaf Cutter Ants feed on the specialized fungus (spongy white material) that grows only on the mulch chewed from leaves. Leaf cutters can use any vine in the rain forest as an elevated "highway" over the ground. The Leaf Cutter Ant is endowed with powerful mandibles. Not only the leaves are useful for these ants. Once cut, leaf bits are carefully transported throughout rainforest to the ant burrow.
Even more, for some jobs, the work of a team of ants is required. Sometimes there is the need of cooperation between two worker ants. Leaf cutter ants settle down large trails in the rain forest ground.
Leaf Cutter Ants carry cargo throughout rainforest to their burrow. A leave bite ready to be carried to the ant hill. Despite plant devastation, these ants are recycling nutrients in the rainforest ecosystem.
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