page_title: Fungus-growing ants
section_title: Caste system
hierarchical_section_title: Fungus-growing ants / Caste system
caption_attribution_description: Atta columbica queen with workers on substrate
context_page_description: Fungus-growing ants comprise all the known fungus-growing ant species participating in ant-fungus mutualism. They are known for cutting grasses and leaves, carrying them to their colonies' nests, and growing fungi on them on which they later feed.
  Their farming habits typically have large effects on their surrounding ecosystem. Many species farm large areas surrounding their colonies and leave walking trails that compress the soil and no longer grow plants. Attine colonies commonly have millions of individuals, though some species only house a few hundred.
  They are the sister group to the subtribe Dacetina. Leafcutter ants, including Atta and Acromyrmex, make up two of the genera. Their cultivars mostly come from the fungal tribe Leucocoprineae of family Agaricaceae.
  Attine gut microbiota is often not diverse due to their primarily monotonous diets, leaving them at a higher risk than other beings for certain illnesses. They are especially at risk of death if their colony's fungus garden is affected by disease, as it is most often the only food source used for developing larvae.
context_section_description: Attines have seven castes performing roughly 20-30 tasks, meaning the potential exists for development of more specialized castes performing individual tasks for Atta's future. For now,  a reproductive caste, made of male drones and female queens, and a worker class, that vary greatly in size, are known. Queens have much larger ovaries than females in the working castes. Since their needs are constantly taken care of, queens rarely move from a single location, which is typically in a centralized fungal garden. Workers take their eggs and move them to other fungal gardens. Differences in size between worker castes begin to develop after a colony is well established.
caption: An Atta colombica queen surrounded by workers in a fungus garden
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