The underground nest, which is home to as many as five million ants, is an giant mound of exposed clay and mud. The nests can be up to one half acre large! Leaf pieces are cut with sharp mandibles, or small arms near the mouth, by the large worker ants. These workers are prone to attack by flies and wasps which try to lay deadly eggs on the ants while they're transporting leaves. Because the ants' mandibles are occupied with the leaf load, the worker cannot protect herself without dropping the leaf. So, a smaller leaf-cutter ant often rides on top of the leaf where they can challenge approaching danger and protect the carrier.

The special leaves which are cut and carried are not food for the colony. Instead, the leaves are cleaned, scraped and chewed into a mushy pulp. The pulp is then cultivates, or grows, a fungus. The fungus serves as the leaf-cutter ants' staple food.

Apparently the leaf cutter ants cannot live without the fungus and the fungus cannot live without the ants. When the giant queen ant leaves the nest to start a new colony, she must take a mouthful of fungus to use as a starter for food in the new colony. Although there is just a single queen living in each colony, she produces thousands of princes and princesses every year. What's more? The princes and princesses develop wings to fly far away from their birthplace. The flying hatchlings have very large abdomens which are a special treat to predators such as toucanets, nun birds, swallowtail kites, monkeys and even humans. How would you like a to eat a flying, fungus farming ant? Try saying that five times fast!

Patrick