Atta leaf ant, is a collective name for a total of 17 ant species in the genus Atta (for convenience, hereinafter referred to as Atta), which are distributed in Central and South America, and their survival mode is to cut the leaves of plants and bring them back to the nest to cultivate fungi for larvae to eat, while adult insects feed on the sap of plants to survive. A mature colony of attache leaf ants, with a staggering number of millions of worker ants, has been shown to uptake 50% to 70% of the rainforest plant species in the neotropics, making it the dominant plant-eater in many natural and agro-ecosystems in the neotropics.
The community of attache leaf ants exhibits highly polymorphic characteristics, with queens and males in addition to worker ants divided into four classes, each with different responsibilities:
Mini Worker Ants: The smallest worker ants with a head width of 0.8 to 1 mm and whose duties are to care for the eggs and nursery;
Small worker ants: larger than mini ants, with a head width of 1 to 1.6 mm, responsible for rebuilding the nursery, caring for the queen, handling garbage, and have been able to participate in the fight against intruders;
Medium worker ants: with a head width of 1.8 to 2.8 mm, they are the main leaf collectors, cutting off the leaves outside and bringing them back to the nest, and they also have a defensive role in the confrontation with small enemies (other ants);
Large worker ants: all worker ants with a head width of > 3.2 mm, they are the largest type of worker ants, the responsibility is equivalent to soldier ants, the maximum head width can reach 6.4 or even 7 mm, the body length is 8 to 16 mm, inside and outside the nest, these large workers are not active compared to the smaller worker ants, but when the strong enemy comes, they are the main force rushing to the front line (about how they fight in the first line, the following will be emphasized), usually only when the total number of worker ants in an Atatche leaf ant colony exceeds 10,000, the production of large worker ants will begin, This is a sign that the nest bids farewell to its infancy, and the truly mature community can have a certain number of big workers to serve as the core force of foreign wars.
It's a mature nest of attaches, so large that the humans who dig it up are tiny enough to accommodate millions of worker ants.
This is a comparison of the size of the atache leaf ant of various levels of ants, the rightmost two are reproductive ants (king and queen) before and after mating, the others are worker ants of various grades, the largest worker ant is particularly eye-catching, its head is wider than the queen, can accommodate more masseter muscles, with a huge sharp mouthpiece, can easily bite through the skin of the person, can be called a super lethal weapon in the community.
The atache leaf ant is a large worker ant and its terrifying jaw, and when defending against enemies, they tend to rush to the front with their large heads
The highly differentiated worker ants, combined with their large colony size and fierce combat awareness, make it difficult for atatchi leaf ants to encounter opponents in their habitats. We are familiar with a class of new world marching ants - the famous Eciton genus, this kind of marching ants are ferocious and often attack other ants, but the data shows that the marching ants of the genus will avoid the Atache leaf ant, even if encountered, the two sides are well water does not violate the river water, it can be seen that ataling the swimming ants are very jealous. However, in the neotropics, there are not only the marching ants of the genus Nomamyrmex (Noma means nomad, myrmex is an ant, which translates to close to the nomadic ant, hereinafter referred to as N genus), distributed north from Texas to southern Argentina, and taxonomically close to the genus Eciton. In terms of feeding habits, they feed on ants, termites, and bees. But unlike the genus Ofe Ants, which like to march on the ground, they generally march on leaves and fallen trees to avoid light, and for this reason, scientists have studied them far less thoroughly than their close relatives, N. Esenbeckii (hereinafter referred to as NE), one of the species in N genus, has a bold behavior that shocks scientists - preferring to attack predatory attacher leaf ants.
Nomamyrmex esenbeckii, with the thickest exoskeleton of all the marching ants in the New World, with thick limbs, weapons for large jaws and tail claws, mature colonies can exceed one million, worker ants also have polymorphic types, large worker ants are the main force in front-line combat, body length of 7.6 to 11 mm.
Watch out for the worker ant's chelate, which is its truly lethal weapon
In the face of the powerful Atache leaf ant, the nomadic ant does not dare to do things, but the NE marching ant does it with dignity, and it is reported that in Brazil, Mexico and Costa Rica, they have repeatedly attacked the immature nest of the Atache leaf ant.
In Costa Rica's Corcovado National Park, scholars observed a giant barche leaf ant Atta cephalotes ant nest attacked by NE marching ants, and within minutes, the marching ants formed a "torrent" of 8 to 10 ants in width, and any Attache leaf ants blocking their way were surrounded.
This ata community is small and consists of a 1.5 m2 main ant mound (4 entrances) and two smaller side ant mounds (5 entrances in total). Thousands of marching ants poured into the 3 entrances of the main anthill, and some else entered the side anthill. Initially, no reaction was observed by leaf-cutting ants, however, within a minute, more than 100 large Atta worker ants rushed out of the main cave entrance and 20 to 30 large worker ants emerged from other entrances invaded by marching ants. Many of them managed to block some of the entrances with their dried blades. Others cling vertically to the broken blades form a ring of leaf barriers that encircle the main entrance and the other two entrances. In front of the main entrance, about 300 large worker ants held the broken leaves to form a ring of defense with a maximum diameter of 20 cm, which temporarily and effectively prevented the marching ants from continuing to enter the ant hole.
However, the marching ants still covered the entire anthill, and each large Atta worker ant dragged out of the defensive circle was surrounded by 3 to 15 marching ants, and these surrounded leaf-cutting ants tumbled down the anthill and continued to struggle at the bottom of the anthill, although many dead ants scattered all over the anthill, none of them were processed or dismembered for food by the marching ants.
At the same time, the follow-up troops of the marching ants were already somewhat scattered, and there were signs of disbanding on the edges of the team, but the forward troops on the anthills were unwilling to give up, and intensified their offensive against the seven entrances that Atta was guarding, and finally, they opened a gap in the atta ring of defense, and through the gap bypassed other fortifications to enter the ant hole again.
The situation at the entrance is still complicated, the marching ants are dragging the emerging Atta workers out of the hole by grabbing their heads, some of the ant holes are still blocked by broken leaves, and many marching ants are waiting to enter in front of the entrance that has been breached. Atta's large worker ants gradually ceased to appear, and the marching ants seemed to still be hindered from entering the nest, and it was clear that the battle had turned underground. After a few tens of minutes, the speed at which the marching ants entered the two entrances suddenly accelerated, and it seemed that the internal defenses had been broken, and then the third entrance also became unimpeded, and experts estimated that 1800 marching ants poured in every minute at the three entrances.
After a few minutes, the first marching ant with the spoils of war came out of the anthill, clutching 3 mm of larvae, and after more than half an hour, only one of the ten marching ants came out with larvae or pupae, indicating that the nest's eggs had gradually been hunted out. Two hours later, the first marching ant carrying its native larvae (4 mm long) entered the mound, followed by a multitude of marching ant-worker ants with their larvae, apparently migrating into the nest of the Atatche leaf ant, which became a military camp for the marching ants.
After the battle, thousands of worker ants on both sides died on top of the anthills, most of them large worker ants, the largest of the two colonies. Many marching ants and attaches die in pairs or clusters of small groups. The next day, the scholar stepped on the anthill in boots, and hundreds of marching ants appeared, and by the third day, the stampede did not cause any reaction, proving that the marching ants had left the night before. For the next three months, there was no movement in the nest, indicating that the Atta community had been completely destroyed.
During an attack in Buena Vista, Mexico, a young colony of NE marching ants with 5,400 worker ants looted a small atta ant nest (the area of the anthill was less than 1 square meter), and this atta colony did not even have large worker ants, and did not dare to resist in the process. In another attack in Mexico, scientists rarely filmed an underground attack, in which marching ants killed many adult ants, including Atta's queen, all underground, with no signs of fighting on the ground. In Brazil, the marching ants attacked a small colony with a diameter of 2 meters in the mound, and no large worker ants were observed in this Atta colony, with small and medium-sized worker ants barely resisting, watching the marching ants capture their eggs.
However, the above attacks are some immature Atta colonies, mature colonies of anthills area is tens of hundreds of times their size, the mobilizable force is not equal, so scientists have a long time has a view - mature Atache leaf ant colonies, strictly speaking, there is no natural enemy, even if the NE marching ants that love to eat Atta eggs, do not dare to move mature nests. So, is this really the case, and the next issue of Zoology will tell you about the battle between marching ants and mature Atta colonies.