Species from the Peruvian Jungle

                                                         Leaf Cutter Ants

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English  Name: Leaf cutter ants
Scientific Name: atta sexdens

Spanish Name:  Hormiga cortadora de hojas

Size: they are about 2.1mm and they can grow up to 12,5 mm

Life span: they live 10-15 years as long as the queen is alive.

For more information see:
 

Diet:                                                
   The cutter leaf ant diet includes:      
  • Fresh leaves                                                     
  • Fruits
  • Flowers
  • Tubers
  • Plants and plant stem
 
Predators:
  Some predators include:
  • Other insects
  • Ant eaters
  • Humans
  • Certain mammals

Adaptations: 

  • They survive in ther habitat because they live in a colony were they can be defended
  • These ants have developed a spiny body to protect themselves. and they aslo have a powefull scissor like mouth to cut leaves and to attack their predators or enemies.
  • These ants have also developed a scent, which stays in the floor for them to know their way back home, when they go to cut leafs or find food.
  • A female stores from 206 to 320 million sperm, for ten to fifteen years, in her spermatheca.
  • A queen can produce up to 150 million daughters, most of which will probably become workers.

Habitat:
  • Forest Floor layer of the rainforest but it climbs to the canopy layer.
  • Primarily live in Costa Rica to Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, and Brazil, with some species reaching as far as Texas.

Interesting Facts:

  • they collect leaves from the upper parts of the canopy
  • take dead ants and other waste to an underground dump sites or to a trash dump above ground
  • their method of leaf gathering prevents trees outside the colony from being strpped bare like the ones inside the colonie's home place
  • these ants are a very good source of proteins for humans
  • folklore also claims that indians used the jaws of the ant soldier as sutures to hold together the edges of a wound.
  • Thety store the leafs they cut underground for fungus to grow on them and there would be more food for the colony.


 Bibliography:  (go to MLA site)
"" 12 Mar. 2003 <http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/insectia/photo/zoom-02.html> 
 "" 12 Mar. 2003 <animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/atta/a._sexdens$narrative.html> 
"" 12 Mar. 2003 <www.antcolony.org/leafcutter/leafcuttermain.ht>
"" 31 Mar. 2004
<http://www.antcolony.org/images/Ponerine_Ant_Guards_Precious_Food2.JPG>