Texas Leafcutter Ant—Part 1

So, let's get started with the description.

Adult Texas leafcutter ants are, well, ants, so they're ant-shaped.

Like all insects, their body is broken down into three segments.

The head, the thorax, which is the middle segment, and the abdomen, which is the end segment.

They have spindly legs, long-jointed antennae, and powerful mandibles, aka mouthparts.

Workers have three pairs of spines on the back of their thorax and another pair on their head.

Males and queens that haven't started colonies yet are called A. Ares, B. Formex, or C. Aelates.

Chet? Checka C.

Cap? Checka B.

Drumroll? Checka fine.

The answer is...

C. Alates.

Chet, you're right.

Check out Will! But Cap, you're wrong.

Formic is actually just from the Latin word for ant, formica.

That's also where the name formic acid comes from because ants produce it.

Alate comes from the Latin word elatus, meaning winged.

Anyway, alates have brownish-yellow wings that are longer than their bodies.

Queens mandibles are smaller than those of workers, and males mandibles are even smaller and don't even work.

Males also have especially small heads.

Both males and queens lack the spines that workers have.

Adult Texas leafcutter ants are a rusty reddish-dark brown and larvae are cream color.

They look very similar to other ants in the genus Atta.

Apparently, the main way to tell them apart from similar species apart from where they're found is that the contents of their poison glands smell like mint.

Leafcutter ants as a whole are what's called polymorphic.