"They cut through leaves with chainsaw-like
mandibles and sip on sweet leaf sap, but they
do not eat the leaves.
Instead ...
... they carry their leaf cuttings along a busy
highway, following their colony's trail ...
... hauling enormous
weights at incredible
speeds back to the city."
I had no idea; I am not sure that I had ever heard anything about leafcutter ants. After reading Amy Hevron's book, I am fascinated by all I have learned about a community of 'eight million sisters working together' for the greater good of all.
It happens in a Central American rainforest, and begins with a queen. After mating, she creates the city's first chamber by tunneling down and laying her eggs along with fungus from her mother's nest. This initial chamber is the key to survival for what is to follow.
As new ants hatch through the years, they develop those traits that make them an integral part of the community being built. The newest ones stay in their city to take care of things like feeding. The oldest ones work to manage trash by helping it decompose faster. Tiny ants clean leaves that have been cut and brought from above, and act as pharmacists to use the antibodies they produce to ensure freedom from disease.
That is not all! Those ants that are bigger build tunnels for cooling, and dig new pathways to deter any flooding. Should a predator appear, they can even produce a pheromone to signal danger to the others. The soldiers are called in, and do their part in forcing the predator out of the tunnel. The ants above ground continue with the work they do despite this interruption. They continue to cut the leaves and haul them back to the city to the 'farmers' that work to chew the leaves into a paste to feed their fungus garden!
"Leafcutters belong to a group
of ants that were our world's
first farmers, growing
industrial-scale food crops
for over 60 million years."
Did you know? I did not. Thanks to this marvelous book, I know more about the survival of a rainforest ecosystem and some of the many helpers that keep it that way. What a society they create, again and again.
The rainforest setting is bright with bold colors, and the cutaway images of the underground world will intrigue and delight young listeners. The ants' jobs are clearly shown in digitally collaged double-page spreads. The final two pages provide further material of interest for the book's audience, including a page that describes each of the essential workers. A selected bibliography, a list for additional reading, and a note from the author bring the book to an end.
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