How large is a leaf-cutter queen? (Benjamin, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA)

This is a great question and fits well with our post below on "What is the largest ant in the world?"

Leaf-cutter ants of the genus Atta are well known for cutting and carrying bits of leaf material back to their nest. They then chew this leaf material up into a fine paste to use as the substrate to grow their food - fungus! This is where they get their other common name, fungus-growing ants. Since fungus growing ants have been cultivating fungus for ~50 millions of years, this makes them the worlds first farmers.

Atta texana worker w_leaf.jpg

Worker of Atta texana carrying leaf material back to the nest. Photo by Alex Wild (www.alexanderwild.com).

In a leaf-cutter ant colony there are many sizes of individuals from minute workers to large soldiers to the giant queen herself. The queen of leaf-cutter colonies such as Atta cephalotes can be 22 mm in length. Not quite as long as the the African driver ants mentioned in the post below, but still very large.

Atta texana queen.jpg

Queen and workers of Atta texana on fungus garden. Photo by Alex Wild (www.alexanderwild.com).

Borgmeier, T. (1959) Revision der Gattung Atta Fabricius (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Studia Entomologica (N.S.) 2: 321-390.
Schultz, T.R. & Brady, S.G. (2008) Major evolutionary transitions in ant agriculture. PNAS 105: 5435-5440

- Corrie Moreau & the AntAsk Team