Colombian leafcutter ant
The Colombian leafcutter ant is a dark reddish brown ant with a dull, not shiny, body. It lives in giant colonies in the warm forests of Central and South America. Long lines of workers carry pieces of leaves home, but they do not eat them. They use them to grow a fungus garden.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
One colony can have between 1 and 2.5 million workers.
In one year a colony collects 85 to 470 kilograms of dried leaves and plants.
Workers carry the old, used-up fungus outside and pile it into tall, pointy rubbish heaps next to the nest.
The rubbish pellets are greyish white, and the ants drop them right at the top of the heap, which gives it its cone shape.
When enemy ants attack, it sends out its biggest workers, the soldiers, to fight.
Most asked questions about Colombian leafcutter ant
?What do leafcutter ants eat?
Not the leaves. They grow a fungus on the leaves inside their nest and eat the fungus.
?How many ants live in one leafcutter ant nest?
One colony can have 1 to 2.5 million workers.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Atta colombica
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
Where the facts come from
- Atta colombica (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 Norbert Potensky. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
Black garden ant
Bullet ant
Pharaoh ant
Argentine ant
Red imported fire ant
Yellow crazy ant
Tsetse fly
Amazonian giant centipede
Black witch
Human botfly
Queen Alexandra's birdwing
Wallace's giant bee_05.jpg){kind=link}