Leaf cutter ants

Leaf cutter ants are perhaps one of the most highly organized and developed groups, largely reminiscent of large herbivores. So these insects were named because the basis of their nutrition is made up of leaves. More precisely cut foliage ants used as raw materials for the production of ant "kohlrabi". This article will tell about this amazing and complex process, as well as about the features of the leaf cutter ant itself.

What do the cutters look like?

Leaf cutter ant is a small brown insect. The length of his body varies between 0.5-2 cm, depending on which caste an individual belongs to. In total, leaf cutters have 7 castes: uterus and males, soldiers and foragers, builders and gardeners, as well as small workers.

• Workers caring for future offspring and working on mushroom beds grow no more than 0.5 cm.
• Much larger than the workers look ant defenders or soldiers, whose body length is 1.5-2 cm. A large head with powerful hooked jaws gives them a frightening appearance, thanks to which insects cut off the rough foliage of tropical plants. Indeed, leaf-cutting ants live in Central and South America.
• Deserves special attention queen uterus, the mass of which is several hundred times the weight of the working individual. Another distinctive feature of this female is a very large and powerful breast. Before the mating process, the uterus is a winged individual, after fertilization, it loses its wings, gnawing them. From this moment on, she is only involved in reproducing offspring and organizing a new family.

Leaf cutter ants are owners of three pairs of long paws, the size of which depends on the "position held". In individuals often moving through trees, the limbs are the longest.

Lifestyle

The ant is a hard worker, this phrase is also applicable to leaf cutters. To feed their colony, ants need to make a lot of effort. Climbing a tree, the insect grabs the leaf plate with its limbs, after which it begins to cut pieces of leaf with mandibles. Clutching the load with the stings, the ant heads back to the anthill.

Cut leaves processed by a special caste of insects. As a result, deciduous gruel is obtained from carefully chewed coarse fiber, richly flavored with ant enzymes contained in saliva.

Interesting!

In the saliva of leaf cutters, there is an antibiotic that promotes the growth of pathogenic microorganisms in mushroom beds.

The resulting mass of insects are placed in special chambers in which the necessary microclimate is maintained. The deciduous mixture is infected with a special fungus and fertilized regularly.

After some time, the surface of the underground greenhouse is braided by a mycelium, which looks like a sponge. At the initial stages of the development of mushrooms, ants bite them and throw them away. The resulting slice begins to actively secrete juice, which is a favorite treat of insects. Over time, these places harden and increase in area. They turn into a thick brush of transparent protein bodies, which is called "ant kohlrabi." It is this fungal culture that serves as food for leaf-cutting ants. For this reason, these insects are also called mushroom growers.

Mushroom anthill

Despite the fact that most of their lives leaf cutters spend on trees, they build their nest in the underground layers of soil. Only in such conditions, the fungi are not afraid of temperature changes and moisture.

The nest of leaf cutters itself resembles a large egg, in the core of which the queen of the uterus lives. Around it are incubators with larvae and eggs. Next are the boxes with mycelium.

Interesting!

One anthill can take several meters, more than a million ant individuals can live in it.

Sometimes nomadic ants attack the anthills of the mushroom-eater. Very often after such attacks there are no adults, no offspring, not even mycelium.

How are leaf cutters propagated?

Process breeding ants leaf cutters are similar to their fellows. With the arrival of heat, the male and female fly out of the mating nest. To accumulate the required amount of seed, the swarming female mates with several males. Then she gnaws off her wings and takes up the construction of a new colony. Life of ants males on this ends.

The fertilized female digs a small depression where it lays eggs. There she stacks pieces of leaves infected with mycelium. This substance is located in a special pocket located on the lower part of the head of the queen of the uterus. It is this component that serves as the beginning of life for the leaf-cutting ants farm.

Eyeless and legless larvae that appeared after 1.5 months are completely helpless, therefore only the female is engaged in their feeding. Food they serve hyphae of mushrooms. The queen of leaf cutters herself does not eat at all during this period, she lives using her fat reserves. The queen uterus feeds exclusively the first offspring, subsequently working individuals are engaged in this. The uterus only lays eggs.

Interesting!

The sexual composition of the ant population is carefully controlled by working individuals. The future of the larva, what it will become, depends on the amount of food it consumes.

Females of the uterus and infertile females, which subsequently are labor, emerge from fertilized eggs. From ant eggs that have remained unfertilized, males hatch.