South AmericaNot evaluated
Leafcutter ant
Atta cephalotes
Ants that cut pieces of leaves and carry them home, not to eat but to grow their food.
- Weight
- A few milligrams
- Size
- Up to 1.5 cm long
- Lifespan
- Workers: weeks; the queen: 15+ years
- Top speed
- Marches in long lines
- Diet
- Fungus they grow
How heavy is that?
So light that a 40 kg kid weighs as much as 2,000,000 of them
Where it lives
Three things to know
- They farm a fungus on the chewed leaves, and the fungus is their food.
- One colony can have millions of ants.
- Each ant can carry a piece of leaf many times its own weight.
Compare with…
- Weight
- Leafcutter ant0.02 gA 10-year-old kid40 kgThe kid weighs about 2,000,000× as much as the leafcutter ant
- Size
- Leafcutter ant1.5 cmA 10-year-old kid1.4 mThe kid is about 93× as big as the leafcutter ant
- Top speed
- Leafcutter ant—A 10-year-old kid20 km/hToo slow to time
- Lifespan
- Leafcutter ant15 yrsA 10-year-old kid80 yrsThe kid can live about 5× as long as the leafcutter ant
Food chain
- LeavesProducer
Leafcutter antThis animal- Anteater