Why leafcutter ants evolved into sophisticated farmers

Leafcutter ants tend their fungus comb. (credit: Alex Wild)

Humans are not the only farmers on Earth. The many species of leafcutter ants that inhabit the region stretching from Argentina to the southern United States are incredibly sophisticated food growers. They spend most of their lives harvesting and processing leaves, turning them into a well-tended substrate for growing a nutritious fungus that feeds all the colony's young. A new study reveals why these ants may have evolved their complicated systems of cooperative agricultural activities in the first place.

A complex farming society

A group of researchers at the University of Oregon studied leafcutter ants in their lab colony, as well as wild ants in Colombia and Ecuador. In a paper published today in Royal Society Open Science, the scientists describe the widely studied agricultural feats of leafcutter ants.

The many behaviors of leafcutter ants when they are farming.

Previous observations have revealed that some of the ants venture forth from their colonies to gather leaves that serve as food for adult ants—and as agricultural fodder for the fungus. Inside the colony, another group of ants cuts the leaves down into what the researchers call "fragments." The ants use prehensile, finger-like leg tips called tarsi to manipulate the leaves.

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