Its official! Atta eat the same amount as a cow!

Post here for any notes or records of sightings in the wild. Behaviour, nuptial flights etc, everything about these ants from the Tropics!
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Acromyrmexbob
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Its official! Atta eat the same amount as a cow!

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Sun Aug 28, 2016 8:59 am

I've been using this story for years. An adult colony of Atta will eat the same weight as an adult cow. Cant remember where I heard it but because of my habit of including this in my interesting facts about Leaf Cutters, I think it appears on more information boards than Marco has made those sh*tty drawings he does. However, today, I found this........

From http://www.cabi.org/isc/abstract/19820590628

Foraging and pest potential of Paraguayan grass-cutting ants (Atta and Acromyrmex) to the cattle industry.
Author(s)
Robinson, S. W.; Fowler, H. G.

Abstract

The pest potential of grass-cutting ants of the genera Atta and Acromyrmex to the Paraguayan cattle industry was examined during a 1-year study on the foraging behaviour of the ants and grass productivity. It was estimated that Acromyrmex landolti fracticornis (Forel) foraged, on the basis of dry weight, 0.817 kg/colony per year (up to 4770 kg/ha per year), while estimates extrapolated to the foraging of Atta vollenweideri Forel corresponded to 201-217 kg/colony per year (87-911 kg/ha per year), depending on colony density. Productivity studies, performed by exclusions, suggested that A. vollenweideri foraged up to 972.5 kg/ha per year (230.9 kg/colony per year), and A. capiguara Goncalves 835 kg/ha per year (196 kg/colony per year). These results indicated that the ants consumed at least the same amount of grass as the cattle, reducing considerably the amount of feed available for the latter. Foraging by Acromyrmex l. fracticornis was shown to have a marked diel pattern, seasonally modifiable by micro-environmental parameters, as demonstrated by partial correlation analysis.

Woohoo!! :D

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