Leafcutter Ants

Throughout the El Petén Jungle we came across many leafcutter ants.  They chew a section of a leaf off and proceed to march back to their nest hefting the cargo between two pinchers on their heads.  What a balancing act!

This is only a small part of the loooong line of ants busy at work.  The tree that they cut their leaves from is about 30 feet tall.  Once they have procured the leaf they haul it down the tall tree trunk and as far away as their nest exists.  This particular solid line of worker ants extended down the tree, through the dense jungle maybe 100 feet, out into a small open area for about 10 more feet and into their underground mound home.  Amazing to see so many thousands moving along the ground with the leaves held high above their bodies!  What do they use them for, might be a good question.  Our guide may have addressed this, but he sometimes fell into speaking Spanish since both Bethany and Karen are fluent (I don't think any of them were even aware they were no longer in the English language!), and when he did I could usually pick up the gist of the conversation, but little if any detail.  So next best thing, I googled it just now. Turns out they make a fungus out of it underground, which feeds the ant larvae.  Meantime, the adult ants feed off of the sap on the leaves.  All I can say is that they must have one heck of a birth rate down under!  The amount of leaves going in is phenomenal!