Like all ants and other insects, the leafcutter ant has six legs, two antennae, and a hard body shell or exoskeleton.

A leafcutter ant lives in a giant underground nest. The nest is called a colony. Five to eight million ants can live in one group. This ant is called the farmer of the forest. Each nest will have only one queen.

The female ants in a nest have lots jobs to do. A female might be a worker. The worker gets leaves. It takes care of the young. It keeps the nest clean.

A minim protects the worker ants. A small minim rides on the bits of a leaf. It stops enemies from harming the workers.

A leafcutter ant might be a soldier. The soldier protects the nest. It has a bigger head. It has two big, powerful jaws.

A male leafcutter ant has only one job. That job is to mate with the queen.

A leafcutter ant will climb trees up to 100 feet tall. It will cut out a small piece of a leaf. Then it carries the piece back to its nest. One leafcutter ant can carry up to 500 times its body weight. Leafcutters can strip all the leaves from a tree in 24 hours (one day).

A leafcutter ant does not eat leaves. The ant stores the leaves in the underground nest. The leaves and spit from the ants allows fungus to grow on the leaves. Fungus is what this ant eats.