[travel] Leafcutter ants carrying leaf-surfing ants

[mattbell]

In the Arenal rainforest in Costa Rica I captured a rather unusual sight. Leafcutter ants are amazingly cool -- it was impressive to watch as a long line of them marched back to their colony, each carrying along a large piece of leaf or flower. As I zoomed in on one, I noticed that the leaf it was carrying had another ant (of some smaller species, it appeared) confusedly walking around on the bit of leaf carried by the leafcutter ant.

The leaves are not used directly as food but instead are used to "farm" a fungus eaten by the ants.