Grades 3–5 · Organisms
Why do leafcutter ants carry leaves into fungus gardens?
A line of leafcutter ants may look as though it is bringing home a leafy dinner. The leaf pieces mainly support a different food source: a fungus growing inside the nest. The ants cultivate this living partner rather than simply eating a pile of leaves.
In the diagramLeaves feed the fungus that feeds the ants▸ Leaf piecesCultivated fungusAnt colonyFoodEnzymes help process plant material.Carried leaves are growing material.
Workers bring plant material into the garden and prepare it for fungal growth. The fungus spreads as fine threads through the material. Enzymes, substances that speed chemical changes, help break plant material into smaller substances the fungus can take in.
The cultivated fungus produces nutrient-rich swollen tips that the colony eats. Plant material therefore supplies the fungus, and the fungus supplies food to the ants. The ants, in turn, provide fresh growing material and care for the garden.
This is a close biological partnership, not a plan invented by individual ants. The exact partners and gardening behavior differ among fungus-growing ants; the leafcutter system is one specialized form.
About this explanation
Starting knowledge: Understands that fungi grow and that different organisms can obtain food in different ways.
Sources
- Smithsonian Institution — New Research Reveals Ants as Fungus Farmers
- Aylward and colleagues, PLOS ONE — Enrichment and Broad Representation of Plant Biomass-Degrading Enzymes in the Specialized Hyphal Swellings of Leucoagaricus gongylophorus