Desert Leaf-cutter Ant

Acromyrmex versicolor is known as the desert leafcutting ant. A. versicolor is found during the summer months in the Colorado and Sonoran deserts when there is precipitation. They form large, distinctive nest craters that are covered with leaf fragments. Living and dead leaves are collected by workers and used to cultivate fungus gardens. Each colony has multiple queens, which is a practice called pleometrosis,and each queen has her own batch of “starter” fungus. This species does...