← back to grid
uncommon
Leafcutter Ant
Atta cephalotes
- Habitat
- Tropical forests of Central and South America
- Body length
- 14 mm
- Order
- Hymenoptera · Formicidae
Weird but real
Doesn't eat the leaves it cuts. Farms a specific fungus on them inside underground cathedral nests, in a relationship 50 million years old.
Why it's cool
Tiny civilizations doing industrial agriculture. The fungus has co-evolved to be unable to live anywhere else. Mutual dependence as a way of life.
