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They don't actually eat the leaves - because they cannot digest the cellulose. Instead - they take the pieces of leaf back to their 'nest' - and use them to grow fungus on them. They then eat the fungus.
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Do leaf-cutter ants eat leafs?
Most people think that Leaf-Cutter Ants eat, well, LEAVES, but, that is wrong. As their name suggests, they DO cut leaves, but when they get to the colony, they grind the leaves to a pulp and use it as a natural fertilizer for the FUNGUS that they eat.
do leaf cutter ants save the leaves to eat later in the day?
No. They take the leaf cuttings back to the mound to feed a fungus that they then eat.
Do leaf cutter ants eat leafs?
Most people think that Leaf-Cutter Ants eat, well, LEAVES, but, that is wrong. As their name suggests, they DO cut leaves, but when they get to the colony, they grind the leaves to a pulp and use it as a natural fertilizer for the FUNGUS that they eat.
Why do Leaf cutter ants eat fungus?
Because the ants need to eat
What do an ant eat?
I only know about Leaf-cutter ants. They find leaves, let them rot, then eat the mold.
Do leaf-cutter ants eat leaves?
Yes. As their name suggests, they DO cut leaves, but when they get to the colony, they grind the leaves to a pulp and use it as a natural fertilizer for the FUNGUS that they eat.by stritason
Is a tapir an ant eater?
Human eat tapirs and leaf cutter ants
How do ants protect trees from leaf eaters?
the leaf eaters are afraid of the ants, so the leaf eaters can only eat when the ants are off the leaves. This is how ants protect the trees from the leaf eaters.
Is fungus good for ants?
Very good for leaf cutter ants. They bring cut leaves back to their nest, chew them into tiny pieces and use them as a substrate to grow fungi which they feed to their larvae and eat themselves.
What is the leaf cutter ants predator?
Technically no, because they do not eat the leaves (and other vegetation) they harvest, but instead feed it to their subterranean fungal gardens whose fruiting bodies they do eat. Ecologically, or from a plant's perspective, leafcutter ants have very similar effects to that of a herbivore. Individual colonies of leafcutter ants can consume the same amount of plant biomass that a "real" herbivore such as a cow consumes on a daily basis.
Is a leaf cutter a carnivore?
Leaf cutter ants go out to collect pieces of leaves that they cut off, then take what they have collected back to the nest. In the nest special worker ants prepare the leaf to grow a special fungus that grows into little lumps that the ants feed on. So you can see that what the ants eat is not flesh, but bits of fungus that they grow, much as humans grow mushrooms for food. So we say that they are not carnivores, but fungivorous or mycophagous, two words that mean the same thing: "fungus-eating".
What eats ants in the amazon rain forest?
Leaf-Cutter ants are found in the rainforest. The ants do not actually eat the leaves, but the fungus that comes from the leaves.
