Texas leafcutter ant

{{short description|Species of ant}} {{Speciesbox | image = Atta Texana.jpg | image_caption = Harvesting from a catalpa tree | taxon = Atta texana | authority = Buckley, 1860 }}

The '''Texas leafcutter ant''' ('''''Atta texana''''') is a species of fungus-farming ant in the subfamily Myrmicinae. It is found in Texas, Louisiana, and north-eastern Mexico.<ref name="Robinson">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aluUgDVYJ8wC |title=Handbook of Urban Insects and Arachnids |first=William H. |last=Robinson |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-521-81253-5 |pages=238–239}}</ref> Other common names include '''town ant''', '''parasol ant''', '''fungus ant''', '''cut ant''', and '''night ant'''. It harvests leaves from over 200 plant species, and is considered a major pest of agricultural and ornamental plants,<ref name="AgriLife">{{cite web |url=http://citybugs.tamu.edu/FastSheets/Ent-1029.html |title=Texas Leaf Cutting Ant |work=Insects in the City |publisher=Texas AgriLife Extension |date=2006-08-30 |accessdate=2010-01-04 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015211736/http://citybugs.tamu.edu/FastSheets/Ent-1029.html |archivedate=October 15, 2008}}</ref> as it can defoliate a citrus tree in less than 24 hours. Every colony has several queens and up to 2 million workers. Nests are built in well-drained, sandy or loamy soil, and may reach a depth of {{convert|6|m|ft|abbr=on}}, have 1000 entrance holes, and occupy {{convert|420|m2|ft2|abbr=on}}.<ref name="Robinson"/>

==Description== Workers measure {{convert|4|to|14|mm|abbr=on}} in length, and are highly polymorphic. The back of the thorax has three pairs of spines. The ant has a narrow waist and is rusty brown in color.<ref name="Robinson"/> Its closely related cousin, ''Atta mexicana'' has colonies up to 8 million, and the queen for ''A. mexicana'' is larger than the ''M. texana'' queen. ''Atta mexicana'' is only able to have a single queen, while ''A. texana'' may have multiple queens (often 2). This makes the species polygyne and because of this trait, ''A. texana'' can form massive super colonies with upwards of 10,000,000 total ants in the colony.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Beckers |first1=R |last2=Goss |first2=S |last3=DENEUBOURG |first3=J.L. |last4=PASTEELS |first4=J.M. |title=COLONY SIZE, COMMUNICATION AND ANT FORAGING STRATEGY* |url=https://www.antwiki.org/wiki/images/d/d8/Beckers,_R.,_Goss,_S._et_al._1898._Colony_size,_communication_and_ant_foraging_strategy.pdf |website=Antwiki.org |publisher=University Libre de Bruxelles |access-date=10 August 2023}}</ref> Because of the massive super colonies that they can form, they have been known to cause issues in the local environment and have been a troubling pest for humans living nearby these super colonies.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Walter |first1=E.V. |last2=Seaton |first2=Lee |last3=Mathewson |first3=A.A |title=The Texas leaf-cutting ant and its control |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112019272258&seq=3 |website=Hathitrust.org |publisher=university of illinois urbana champaign |access-date=10 August 2023}}</ref>

==Life cycle== {{inline citations needed|section|date=March 2025}} The queen ant will deposit eggs that then hatch into cream-colored larvae. Fully developed {{convert|1/4|to|1/2|in|cm|adj=mid|-long}} larvae form pupae. In the spring, some larvae develop into larger ({{convert|3/4|in|cm|disp=or}}) winged male and female ants, called reproductives. Males have much smaller heads than do females and both have long smoky black wings.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

== Behavior == The nuptial flights of ''A. texana'' synchronize in regions; the virgin queens and males fly at night.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/superorganismbea0000hlld|url-access=registration|title=The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies|last1=Hölldobler|first1=Bert|last2=Holldobler|first2=Foundation Professor of Biology Bert|last3=Wilson|first3=Honorary Curator in Entomology and University Research Professor Emeritus Edward O.|last4=Wilson|first4=Edward O.|date=2009|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=9780393067040|language=en}}</ref> Their foraging type is Mass Recruitment (MR).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Beckers |first1=R |last2=Goss |first2=S |last3=DENEUBOURG |first3=J.L. |last4=PASTEELS |first4=J.M. |title=COLONY SIZE, COMMUNICATION AND ANT FORAGING STRATEGY* |url=https://www.antwiki.org/wiki/images/d/d8/Beckers,_R.,_Goss,_S._et_al._1898._Colony_size,_communication_and_ant_foraging_strategy.pdf |website=Antwiki.org |publisher=University Libre de Bruxelles |access-date=10 August 2023}}</ref> The Mass Recruitment foraging type consists of many ants all going out into one big group and searching for food.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Reznikova |first1=Zhanna |title=Ants' Personality and Its Dependence on Foraging Styles: Research Perspectives |url=https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Four-main-categories-of-recruitment-strategy-in-ants-mass-recruitment-tandem-running_fig1_351813840 |website=Researchgate.net |publisher=Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals |access-date=10 August 2023}}</ref>

==References== <references/> * {{cite book |title=National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Insects and Spiders & Related Species of North America |first=Arthur V |last=Evans |publisher=Sterling Publishing Co., Inc |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4027-4153-1 |chapter=Ants, Bees, and Wasps: Order Hymenoptera |page=380}}

==External links== * {{cite web | title=Texas Leaf Cutting Ant | website=Insects in the City | date=2019-03-21 | url=http://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/landscape/ants/ent-1002/ | access-date=2021-07-19}} * {{cite web | title=Texas Leaf Cutting Ant, ''Atta texana'' | website=Urban and Structural Entomology Program at Texas A&M University | date=2013-12-05 | url=http://urbanentomology.tamu.edu/urban-pests/ants/leaf_cutting/ | access-date=2022-01-19}}

Category:Atta (ant) Category:Insects described in 1860 Ant, Texas leafcutter Ant, Texas leafcutter Category:Hymenoptera of North America