Temperature-dependent-foraging

Guides

• Acromyrmex versicolor

  Desert Leaf-cutter Ant, Desert Leafcutting Ant

  Acromyrmex versicolor is a desert-adapted leafcutter ant found in the Colorado and Sonoran deserts. Colonies exhibit pleometrosis, where multiple queens cooperate to found nests, though typically only one queen survives to establish a mature monogynous colony. Workers collect living and dead leaves to cultivate fungus gardens, the sole food source for the colony. The species is notable for forming large, distinctive nest craters covered with leaf fragments and for its flexible foraging behavior that shifts between diurnal and nocturnal activity depending on temperature.

  leafcutter-antfungus-farming-antdesert-antpleometrosispolyandrytemperature-dependent-foragingpolymorphismAttiniMyrmicinaeSonoran-DesertColorado-Desertecosystem-engineermutualismfungus-cultivationsocial-insectsuperorganism