The Leaf Cutter Ants...

Beneath our feet on the rainforest floor...

Leaf cutter ants can carry pieces that weigh 30 times more than they do. For a human being, this would be like carrying a bulldozer! Leaf cutters eat fungus because they cannot digest plants. A fungus is a simple living thing that breaks down plant litter into starch and sugar. Examples of fungus are mushrooms and mold. Leaf cutter queen normal life span 10 or more years. Drones are the only males in the colony. Their work is to mate with the queen. Lots of animals and some people eat leaf cutter ants--for example, spiders, ant lions, frogs, toads, and birds. The anteaters use their long, sticky tongues to lick ants out of their burrows. They swallow thousands at a time. Then some people in Mexico eat ants, which are a very good source of protein. But there are times when the soldiers, the largest workers, win the battles in defending their colonies from attack by other ants, spiders or other crawling insects. Their jaws are strong enough to cut leather. The Rainforest Indians used soldier ants to stitch wounds together. They let the ant bite both sides of a cut, then snipped its body off leaving the head behind.Now how about that for first-aid treatment... While living in Panama as a kid I just love to watch leaf cutter ants going about doing their thing. They are probably the most interesting ants to watch. They are really hard workers and the only time they seem to stop was when it rained. Escape to Panama... a lost tropical paradise at 9 degrees above the equator… Panama at the cross roads of world commerce in the heart of the universe… Panama more than just a canal… What a place to get away from it all... Just do it... you will be glad you did!!! Too Many Secrets Latest book ... More about my books ... Leaf Cutter Ants there are Millions, Billions, Zillions! The BIG leaf-cutter colonies harvest leaves and grow gardens underground... these are leaf cutter ants farm! Yes another world beneath your feet... Leaf cutter ants live in giant colonies beneath the rainforest floor. A typical ant colony has Five to eight million ants... Ants like all other insects, ants have six legs, two antennas, and an exoskeleton. Their bodies have three parts: head, thorax and abdomen... Leaf cutter queens fly away from their homes and start new colonies by laying lots of eggs. Workers serve queens: drones, leaf cutters, foragers, gardeners, and soldiers... Drones are the only males in the colony. Their work is to mate with the queen... The social behavior of the leaf-cutter ant is probably its most unique adaptation. Usually, the smallest workers of the colony tend to remain in the nest and serve as gardeners or nursemaids tending to the queen ant. The medium-sized, next to the smallest workers, travel by day to find fresh leaves, then cut the leaves and flowers into fragments to carry back to the nest. The nests can be up to twenty feet underground and again there are millions of ants in the colony... The largest ants are the soldiers and they fight off other ants and guard the nest... The leaf-cutter ant feeds on fungus from the tended compost heap, which is exclusively produced within the nest from decaying leaves, and flowers foraged and carried into the nest by worker ants. Ants communicate by leaving chemical trails or by sounds made by rubbing a file (located behind the waist) against the abdomen. People can hear this sound...just think... Leaf-cutter Ants are just one of 8,000 species of ants in the world... This brings a new meaning to the question: "Do you have ants in your pants?"