Leafcutter ant Facts for Kids
Atta cephalotes · AT-uh sef-uh-LOH-teez
An ant that grows a fungus garden on leaves it carries home.
- 🏃 speed: not yet checked
- ⚖️ weight: not yet checked
- 📏 0.079 to 0.47 in2 mm to 1.2 cm1 long
- 🎂 lifespan: not yet checked
- 🍽️ plants
- Not on the Red List (Not assessed)
Leafcutter ants cut leaves into small pieces. They carry the pieces over their heads like green umbrellas. In their nest, the leaves help them grow food.
Leafcutter ants don't eat the leaves. They carry them underground and chew them into a paste that feeds a fungus the ants grow like a garden. The ants then eat the fungus, and tiny ants sometimes ride on the leaf pieces to guard the carriers.
A leafcutter nest is like a busy city. Ants of many sizes each have a job: the middle-sized ones cut and carry leaves, the tiny ones tend the fungus garden, and one queen lays all the eggs. The ants even keep their garden healthy by carrying helpful bacteria on their bodies that protect the fungus from harmful molds. Leafcutters farmed fungus long before people ever farmed crops.
How big is a leafcutter ant?
Leafcutter ant in numbers
| Length | 0.079 to 0.47 in2 mm to 1.2 cm1workers of a close cousin, the Mexican leafcutter ant |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | no checked number yet |
| Weight | no checked number yet |
| Top speed | no checked number yet |
| How long it lives | no checked number yet |
| What it eats | a fungus they grow on chewed-up leaves, and sweet juice from the leaves |
| Where it lives | the rainforests of Central and South America |
| What kind | Bugs and other animals without backbones |
| Is it in danger? | Not on the Red List (Not assessed) |
A number we couldn’t find on a page we trust says so, instead of guessing.
Wow!
- A leafcutter can carry a piece of leaf much bigger than its own body.
- Tiny ants ride on the leaf pieces to guard the carriers.
- Leafcutters were farming long before people were.
Compare the leafcutter ant
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Where these numbers come from
- National Park Service, Park Science: leafcutter ant Atta mexicana at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Leafcutter ant (Q1945635), checked 30 October 2026.