leafcutter ants @ antville

°°° on vacation °°°

Mr.Yoda — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:20:19 GMT

"Chevron eight: LOCKED!"
Bye, see you later ....

highlight

Mr.Yoda — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 20:55:16 GMT

While on vacation I usually do not watch TV at all - this time, however, I did it once:
A Gentleman I talked to and exchanged pet-peeves & preferences with told me that there was going to be a feature on leafcutter ants on TV.

It was worth watching. Not only for the pictures, but also for the explanation on how these creatures live .... sorry, but I do not remember which channel it was on.

°°° on vacation °°°

Mr.Yoda — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:39:30 GMT

will be back by June 15^th ....

food

Mr.Yoda — Sun, 01 May 2011 23:22:52 GMT

Some time ago I was approached by a young man who wanted to start a business of his own. He had the idea to sell fried insects to the general public in Germany. He asked me because my field of studies had been the physiology of ants - he just wanted to be sure the animals themselves wouldn't be a threat to the health of potential consumers.

To make the long story short:
I ate a few handfull of roasted, salted leaf cutter ants (about two years ago) - and I'm still alive*.

The attempt to set up shop wasn't successful. The German authorities weren't up to the task: No risk taken, insects are not for consumption as food for humans - was their verdict. Hence no business ....

I thought it was a good idea and could have been a success. The ants tasted similar to peanuts, roasted, salted peanuts - with the difference that they contain less fat, more protein and last longer because one has to grind their exoskeleton thouroughly by chewing on it for quite some time ....

* OK, I also had fried, seasoned grasshoppers, silk worms, bees, water scorpions and beetles - none of those were disgusting, but I'd prefer the ants ....

(more to come, please call back here at your convenience ....)

Sorry!

Mr.Yoda — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:47:11 GMT

It has been a while since I last added some information here
.... but it was for a reason.

Now:
Today I'm just posting a picture
- but it relates to the leaf cutter ants -
somehow ....

[source]

ant-fungus-mutualism = symbiosis

Mr.Yoda — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:02:51 GMT

As stated before the ants need the fungi to feed their offspring and for this reason they have to carry it along when moving the nest from one place to another. The fungus needs the ants to provide the chopped, chewed and minced leaves it lives on. It also needs the ants in order to be disseminated.

In fact, the ants go even further in protecting the fungi:
They produce a nourishing fluid in glands on the outside of their skeleton. This feeds another species of fungi that produce an anti-biotic which is capable of destroying any kind of other bacteria or fungi in competition to its own symbiotic fungus.

Quite amazing, isn't it?
A masterpiece of Evolution, that started approximately 20 Million years ago ....

(more to come, please call back here at your convenience ....)

harvesting

Mr.Yoda — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:20:47 GMT

The amount of food a colony of leaf-cutting ants needs is humongous:
4g of leaves per worker per day - which adds up to a total of 12-14% of the leaf production in rainforest areas.

Whilst the leaf fragments are carried tiny 'minima' [smallest caste in leaf cutting ants] sit on them [not always, but very often] and thus prevent parasitic flies to lay their eggs on the leaves from which larvae will hatch - and feed on the leaf cutters offspring ....

Still more amazing is how much weight such a small worker - [approximate/average] length 1,1-1,7cm; weight 300-500mg - can carry:
50 times its own weight.

(more to come, please call back here at your convenience ....)

@ intro

Mr.Yoda — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:16:52 GMT

Leaf-cutter ants are a most amazing species.

Their society is almost as complex and structured as we know it from our own. Each individual has a specific set of tasks that change through their life cycle. It is depending on the age of an ant what kind of chores it has to perform:
Still young and strong they collect leaves and provide safety to their nest. Later on they care about the mutualist fungus that (partly) feeds the stock by fermenting the cut leaves brought in by the workers. After that they pull out the debris, left-over leaves, and the wastes accumulating after the fungi have extracted the nutrients they needed for growth.

Once an individual dies it still services its colony. The dead are carried to the waste dump and are placed around it in a circle ....

(more to come, please call back here at your convenience ....)