No pigs or chickens yet. But the vast farms where leaf-cutter ants raise their fungal crops may harbor a crew of previously overlooked farmhands — nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

A leaf-cutter ant. Leaf-cutter ants harvest leaves, chop them into nutritious pulp, feed the pulp to nourish their cultivated crops of fungus, and harvest the fungus to feed themselves.

You can also get a bug's eye view of the ants' underground nest at the San Diego Zoo's Children's Zoo, something you wouldn't be able to see in the wild. Europe's cost of decoupling from US war ...

Leaf-cutting ants snip fragments that are perfect for transport, so how do they gauge the size? Researchers from the University of Würzburg, Germany, publish in Journal of Experimental Biology ...

Like fire ants, these creatures are imported from Central and South America and have no natural enemies in our area. This very comprehensive site from Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension, Leaf Cutting ...

video: Leaf-cutter ants could be called the overachievers of the insect world. They are farmers, medicine makers, and green energy producers. Bacteriologist Cameron Currie studies the complex ...

The Year the Leaf-Cutter Ants Took Manhattan In January, the American Museum of Natural History’s new insectarium gained 500,000 tenants. It has taken them some time to find their footing.

Leaf-cutting ants are insect superheroes, capable of transporting leaf fragments up to six times their body mass to develop fungus in their borrows. But how do the fascinating creatures judge the ...

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series on Texas leaf cutting ants. The first part was published on Sept. 4. Control of Atta Texana, Texas leaf cutter ants, is a challenge because ...

First, two lilies disappeared from the garden. Then, a crape myrtle tree was stripped overnight. Tina Ramirez's house in the Harper's Landing neighborhood of The Woodlands was under attack. Every ...

Leaf-cutting ants are insect superheroes, capable of transporting leaf fragments up to six times their body mass to develop fungus in their borrows. But how do the fascinating creatures judge the ...