Atta cephalotes Worker Leaf Cutter Ant Tropical Insect Hymenopterus Formicidae

Atta cephalotes mm 12-14 Leaf Cutter Ant Worker Tropical Insect Hymenopterus Formicidae.

Atta cephalotes is a species of leaf-cutting ant from the Attini tribe (the ants that grow mushrooms). A single ant colony can contain up to 5 million members, and each colony has a queen who can live more than 15 years. The colony includes several castes with division of duties.
The species is one of the first classified ants, first described by the Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 as Formica cephalotes in the tenth edition of Systema Naturae along with 16 other species of ants, all placed by him in the genus Formica. It was later transferred to a new genus, Atta, along with five other species by the Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius in 1804.
A special caste of workers manages the colony's landfill. These ants are excluded from the rest of the colony. If an individual wanders out of the landfill, the other ants will either kill him or force him to go back. This is because garbage workers are often contaminated with diseases and toxins and live only half the time of their peers. The species is widely distributed in the neotropical region, from Mexico to Bolivia, with disjoint populations in Amazonia and in the north-east of Brazil.
They live in nests up to 7 meters deep which they place carefully so that a breeze can clear the nest of dangerous CO2 levels emitted by the fungus they grow and eat.