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Foragers carry leaves, but sometimes guard ants hitch a ride too. What happens to the leaves these ants are carrying? Leaf-cutter ants have grown and eaten fungus gardens far longer than humans have known how to farm. Let’s follow a leaf from tree to fungus garden to see how leaf-cutter ants make their food. The process of a leaf going from tree to fungal garden is similar to a factory assembly line. A leaf section is first cut from a tree in a large, heavy piece that can only be carried by a large ‘major’ worker. Once the large worker brings the leaf into the colony, medium-sized workers cut it into smaller pieces and carry them closer to the fungus. Then, even smaller workers crush the leaf piece into a moist pellet and place it on the fungal garden in the position that they want the fungus to grow. The fungus garden is full of tiny holes and channels. The very smallest workers can fit through these passages to clean and remove bad mould from their fungus garden, just like how we remove weeds from a vegetable garden. Image by Geoff Gallice.