Naturalist E.O.Wilson offered that leafcutters have perfectly evolved to address every small need necessary for their survival over their 50 million years in existence. Different ants are responsible for each step in the cultivation process. According to their size, ants fulfill specific roles such as defenders of the colony, gardeners, foragers, and leafcutters. Incredibly, there are even tiny ants that straddle the backs of larger worker ants and defend them from carnivorous flies. No survival task is left unassigned.
Researchers marvel at the complex form of sustainable agriculture that the ants practice.
Careful not to overuse a single vegetation source, leafcutters gather fragments from different plants and trees, minimizing the vegetation's tendency to build up its defenses. Some ants are equipped with a bacterium that acts as a pesticide on a particular mold, the largest threat to their fungus gardens. The ants sparing use of this protectant has kept the mold from developing a resistance, allowing the bacterium to remain an effective defense over time. Look for the leafcutter ant as the logo of Neotropics Communications's Eco-Index Web site. An obvious choice because of the parallels to the sustainability goals of conservationists, leafcutters provide a shining model of cooperative and conscientious productivity.