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Acromyrmex

octospinosus

 Our leaf cutter colony is one of our most popular attractions at events, also being featured on Netflix, these stunning little Ants will keep you captivated for hours.

 Commonly known as the Spiny Leaf Cutter, They are much easier to keep and maintain than Atta sp.

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 Leaf cutters don’t eat leaf, they cut and harvest it, carrying it back to their fungus chambers to be broken down further to create and grow a ball of fungus. This is used to feed the brood and colony.

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 Waste and old fungus is taken  away to the rubbish pit area. 

 Based around the heavily forested areas of South America, they will take many different types of leaf. Leaving the unwanted.

 They are often seen as a pest by farmers, causing wide spread damage to crops and landscapes.

 

 Very polymorphic, Larva are fed and nurtured by the adult workers, this is when the role of the Larva is decided and fed accordingly, for a larger worker to cut more leaf, they will feed more protein, for smaller fungus tending workers, they will feed less, there is some crossover in worker placement and roles, with other factors having an impact such as worker age and colony strength and size.

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 Larger workers are equip with large mandibles for cutting the leaf, they use their back legs as an ancor and move around using their jaws like pincers, this ensure they do not cut a bigger size than they can carry.

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  • Leaf cutter Ants require a small amount of sugars or sap in captivity, in the wild they would digest high quality sap whilst cutting the leaf.

  • One of the most researched Ant sp in the world.

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