''Atta colombica'' is one of 47 species of leafcutter ants. This species is part of the Attini tribe (the

fungus-growing ants Fungus-growing ants (tribe Attini) 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 using them to grow fungus o ...

Description

Workers of this species are maroon in colour, and are entirely matte, with no shiny spots.

Distribution

Atta colombica workers cutting whole plant

This species ranges from

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

, and can also be found in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

Nests

''A. colombica'' produces visible refuse dumps of spent fungus on the surface. These dumps often take the form of large, conical mounds, and are located to the side of the main soil mounds. Lines of workers carry the spent fungus from the nest to the dumps. They deposit the grayish-white pellets at the peak of the mounds, which produces the conical shape. This behaviour is different from '' A. cephalotes'', which deposit their refuse in subterranean dumps. The number of workers in a colony is estimated to be 1.0-2.5 million.

Behavior

A colony of ''A. colombica'' harvests, on average, of plant biomass per year (dry weight), meaning they harvest a leaf area of about annually. The average number of different active males in each colony is believed to be less than three. Due to the variation of shared paternity, though, colonies effectively contain two fathers. Unlike the majority of ''Atta'' spp., that respond to colony threats from other ants with many small worker ants, ''A. colombica'' appears to recruit majors, or soldiers, for defense.

References

External links