Diet
The ants of the Atta group monoculture fungus for food by removing competing fungus from their gardens. To do this, they harvest many different types of plants and plant materials, including leaves, flowers, seed husks, and stems. They use this material as a substrate for the fungus. The ants also harvest and grow bacteria of the genus Streptomyces to produce antibiotics to help fight off unwanted fungi and parasites. (Currie, Scott, Summerbell, & Malloch, 1998). To grow these bacteria, the ants must first harvest the leaves. They use chemical as well as vibrational communication to uniformly dismember a branch of its leaves and return home with their harvest. While transporting the leaves, the mandibles of the workers are full and unable to be used for protection from predators. One of the most common and deadly predators to the leaf cutter ants is the parasitic phorid fly. The phorid fly will lay its eggs inside of an unexpecting ant while it is carrying its load back to the colony. The leafcutters evolved a look-out system where the smallest ants will ride on top of the leaf being carried by the worker and keep watch for any phorid flies looking to parasitize the workers. When the leaves finally reach the nest, other individuals lick the waxy cuticle off the leaves and chew it up into small pieces. Next, they inoculate the leaves with a fecal cocktail of enzymes from their hindgut. This initiates the digestion of the newly chewed leaves. The plant material will be transported to the garden, where it will be used to grow fungus on which the ants will feed. Leafcutter ants tend to dominate the ecosystems they inhabit. Some grassland Atta species colonies consume as much vegetation per hectare as domestic cattle. Certain rainforest species are estimated to cause up to 80% of all leaf damage and to consume up to 17% of all leaf production. Generally, Atta species are not generalists and have been shown to use between 50 and 75% of all neotropic rainforest plant species.
Read more about this topic: Atta (genus)
Famous quotes containing the word diet:
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every color and as good as sour balls.
I’m on a diet from death.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
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—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)