Leaf Cutting Ant Forum

This fungus ant grow their fungus using unusual material for fertilizer.
Here an ant caries a caterpillar dropping.

Nice looking ant there

Looks very similar to a small Acromyrmex.

Heres a picture of their excavated nest showing queen and lots of workers.

How big do they get ?

Colonies are small, fungus size of golf ball, but a few gardens. Ants are around half size of Acros.

Oh cool will you be getting any? Love try out them look so cool

As Riccco asked do you think you will bring back any of these types of fungus growing ant at some point? Sure you toyed with the idea. I think it would be interesting.

deansie26 wrote:As Riccco asked do you think you will bring back any of these types of fungus growing ant at some point? Sure you toyed with the idea. I think it would be interesting.

I brought a colony of these back to test it but I was unable to find the queen when I checked them a week after coming back. They are digable upable so its something I would look at. To be honest what I need is someone else out there who can see past Leaf Cutters and wants to go get all the other bits and pieces. I honestly cannot get excited about going and digging anything other than Leaf Cutters. I go out there with huge intentions and when it comes down to it I go and get myself some Leaf Cutter therapy!

I wonder if we have any Trachymyrmex keepers on here? I'd expect there to be a fair few keepers in the U.S given the spread of these ants throughout the southern states. Could be a nifty little species to keep for those who want to dip their toes into the leaf-cutter world, without requiring a huge setup.
Trachymyrmex by Che Hawkins, on Flickr