alexwild > Male leaf-cutting ants (Acromyrmex versicolor) lek above the desert floor, awaiting virgin queens who fly into the swarm to mate.  This species flies during the Arizona summer monsoon season, early in the morning after a soaking rain.

Tucson, Arizona, USA
alexwild > A desert leafcutter, Acromyrmex versicolor, carrying a leaf back to her nest.

Tucson, Arizona, USA
alexwild > A queen leafcutter ant (Atta texana) dwarfs her daughter workers.

Captive colony at the University of Texas
alexwild > A queen leafcutter ant (Atta texana) dwarfs her daughter workers.

Captive colony at the University of Texas
alexwild > Atta cephalotes

Gamboa, Panama
alexwild > Major and minor workers of Atta cephalotes demonstrating the size extremes among worker ants in a single leafcutter ant colony.

Captive colony at the University of Illinois
alexwild > Atta cephalotes leafcutter ants are true agriculturalists, farming an edible fungus (visible here as a white mold) in underground chambers.

Captive colony at the California Academy of Sciences
alexwild > Acromyrmex coronatus, cutting through a leaf.

Panamá
alexwild > Male leaf-cutting ants (Acromyrmex versicolor) lek above the desert floor, awaiting virgin queens who fly into the swarm to mate.  This species flies during the Arizona summer monsoon season, early in the morning after a soaking rain.

Tucson, Arizona, USA
Male leaf-cutting ants (Acromyrmex versicolor) lek above the desert floor, awaiting virgin queens who fly into the swarm to mate. This species flies during the Arizona summer monsoon season, early in the morning after a soaking rain.

Tucson, Arizona, USA
alexwild > Male leaf-cutting ants (Acromyrmex versicolor) lek above the desert floor, awaiting virgin queens who fly into the swarm to mate.  This species flies during the Arizona summer monsoon season, early in the morning after a soaking rain.

Tucson, Arizona, USA
Male leaf-cutting ants (Acromyrmex versicolor) lek above the desert floor, awaiting virgin queens who fly into the swarm to mate. This species flies during the Arizona summer monsoon season, early in the morning after a soaking rain.

Tucson, Arizona, USA
See photo in gallery

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all images and text © Alex Wild 2009

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