page_title: Leafcutter ant
section_title: Reproduction and colony founding
hierarchical_section_title: Leafcutter ant / The lifecycle of a leafcutter ant colony / Reproduction and colony founding
caption_attribution_description: Atta columbica queen with workers on substrate
context_page_description: Leafcutter ants, a non-generic name, are any of 47 species of leaf-chewing ants belonging to the two genera Atta and Acromyrmex.
  These species of tropical, fungus-growing ants are all endemic to South and Central America, Mexico, and parts of the southern United States. Leafcutter ants can carry twenty times their body weight and cut and process fresh vegetation to serve as the nutritional substrate for their fungal cultivates.
  Acromyrmex and Atta ants have much in common anatomically; however, the two can be identified by their external differences. Atta ants have three pairs of spines and a smooth exoskeleton on the upper surface of the thorax, while Acromyrmex ants have four pairs and a rough exoskeleton.
  Next to humans, leafcutter ants form the largest and most complex animal societies on Earth. In a few years, the central mound of their underground nests can grow to more than 30 m across, with smaller radiating mounds extending out to a radius of 80 m, taking up 30 to 600 m² and containing eight million individuals.
context_section_description: Winged females and males leave their respective nests en masse and engage in a nuptial flight known as the revoada (Port.) or vuelo nupcial (Span.). Each female mates with multiple males to collect the 300 million sperm she needs to set up a colony.
  Once on the ground, the female loses her wings and searches for a suitable underground lair in which to found her colony. The success rate of these young queens is very low, and only 2.5% will go on to establish a long-lived colony. To start her own fungus garden, the queen stores bits of the parental fungus garden mycelium in her infrabuccal pocket, which is located within her oral cavity.
caption: Atta colombica, queen with larvae and workers on substrate
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