Chicatana leafcutter ant
The chicatana leafcutter ant is a dark brown ant that cuts pieces of leaves and carries them home. But it does not eat the leaves. It uses them to grow a fungus garden underground, and the fungus is its food.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
The queen is about 3 centimetres long, much bigger than her workers.
Its soldiers grow up to 18 millimetres long and are covered in short spines like armour.
At the start of the rainy season, winged ants fly out of the nest to start new colonies.
In Mexico people collect these ants and eat them fried or toasted with salt, lemon and hot sauce, or in a sauce called salsa de chicatanas.
Most asked questions about Chicatana leafcutter ant
?What do leafcutter ants eat?
Not leaves. They grow a fungus on the cut leaves and eat the fungus.
?Do people eat chicatana ants?
Yes. In Mexico they are a traditional snack, fried or toasted, and are also made into sauce.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Atta mexicana
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Atta mexicana (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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