Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Leafcutter Ants


 Goliad State Park has a LOT of ant hills. One was in the camping area and particularly fascinating. The hill itself was maybe 9-10’ diameter and a foot or so high. But the coolest part is when I found ants taking leaves from a tree nearby. The tree was about over 100 feet away from the hill. The ranger told us that the hole ran underground to the ant hill. The tree is normally stripped of leaves in a week or less and survives to grow leaves again.

Apparently leafcutter ants don’t actually eat the leaves. They grow a fungus on the leaves and eat the fungus. I didn’t know that!


The ants moved in a long line all day. Not a job I’d want!

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