The Leafcutter Ants

October 15, 2010
Leafcutter ants are familiar to all who watch nature shows about the tropics, or those who live in rural Texas and Louisiana. These are the ants busily running in columns on trails they keep free of debris and vegetation, carrying freshly cut sections of leaves and flower petals over their heads like parasols. If one followed the ants to their nest, one would discover an immense network of tunnels, the majority of which are an underground garden in which the ants grow their foodfungus planted onto a substrate of chewed plant material previously brought by the ants. In this new look at the leafcutter ants, Pulitzer Prize winners Hlldobler (with Wilson for The Ants, 1990) and Wilson (On Human Nature, 1978) introduce the general reader to earths most evolved animal society. With the colonys queen as its reproductive organ; the various ages and types of workers as the brain, heart, and other organs; and the communication among the ants similar to the communication of nerves and ganglia, a leafcutter ant colony can be truly considered as a superorganism.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)