We have all been in that situation: the moving boxes are large and heavy, but we are determined to carry them all in one trip, even if that means we can’t see where we’re going. In the tropics, some ...

Celebrate Thanksgiving with some of the animal kingdom’s greatest cooks, including marshmallow-roasting apes and salt-sprinkling monkeys Jack Tamisiea In the tropical forests of Central and South ...

Deep beneath the forests of the Americas, leafcutter ants have built one of the most advanced societies on Earth. Colonies of up to 8 million workers travel along 10-lane highways, not to eat the ...

The young scientists learn about the life cycle of an ant. The life cycle of ants is described; the queen lays the eggs which ...

Cocoa cultivation in so-called agroforestry systems is widespread in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. There, cocoa plants grow alongside other trees in the same area. The problem is that leaf cutter ...

A colony of leafcutter ants is home to more than just one species. Each year, studies reveal new layers of complexity in these ecosystems, where various fungi and bacteria thrive alongside the ants, ...

The Butterfly Pavilion welcomed a new species of critter this month, and it’s already making itself at home. The new leafcutter ant exhibit showcases the lives of these invertebrates, who are known ...

You have one of two relationships with leaf-cutter ants. First, you’re a nature-lover, visiting Costa Rica, as you always do, when it’s a little too cold at home. You’re enjoying the house you don’t ...

A genus of fungi previously considered a parasite of fungi associated with ants may actually have much more complex ecological functions. According to a study published in the journal Communications ...

Long before humans discovered agriculture 10,000 years ago, leafcutter ants started to farm fungi—55 to 60 million years ago. The leafcutter ants don't consume the leaves they collect. Their food does ...

CC0 Usage Conditions ApplyClick for more information. Like any relationship, the key to a successful leaf-cutter ant colony is communication. The colony that "talks" to each other can conquer forces ...