Like any relationship, the key to a successful leaf-cutter ant colony is communication. The colony that "talks" to each other can conquer forces much larger than themselves. For example, army ant ...

You have one of two relationships with leaf-cutter ants. First, you’re a nature-lover, visiting Costa Rica, as you always do, when it’s a little too cold at home. You’re enjoying the house you don’t ...

Leaf‐cutting ants are notable for their dual role as both potent herbivores and ecosystem engineers, shaping forest ecosystems through direct defoliation and indirect modifications of the physical ...

The mutualistic relationship between leaf-cutting ants and their fungal cultivars, primarily Leucoagaricus gongylophorus, constitutes one of nature’s most intricate examples of symbiosis. This ...

I am normally not a fan of ants, and in fact have a personal vendetta against many ant species. But I was walking along a trail the other day when I saw another trail running parallel to mine. It was ...

They might not be able to leap tall buildings with a single bound, but leaf-cutting ants are insect superheroes, capable of carrying leaf pieces up to six times their body mass to cultivate fungus in ...

In January, the American Museum of Natural History’s new insectarium gained 500,000 tenants. It has taken them some time to find their footing. By Emily Anthes It was a cold, gray afternoon in ...

Leaf-cutter ant nests are biogeochemical hot spots where ants live and import vegetation to grow fungus. Metabolic activity and (in wet tropical forests) soil gas flux to the nest may result in high ...

Scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama discovered that carrying oversized loads limits the ability to perceive the trail in leafcutter ants, akin to blind spots ...