Classes

• Leaf-cutter ants come in several classes and are divided by the jobs that they do in the colony. There are gardener-nurses that tend to the fungus and feed it to the other ants, and within-nest generalists that are assigned general tasks, such as caring for the colony's queen or cleaning the nest. Forager-excavator ants look for plant matter to harvest and bring back to the colony to compost and feed to the fungus. Defenders are the largest group within the colony, and as their name suggests, they guard and defend the nest from intruders.
  
  

Cutting

• Leaf-cutter ants have a special diet and only eat a special type of Leucocoprinus fungus that is only grown inside their nests. This fungus grows from the clippings that the forager ants bring from the rain forest floor. This movement redistributes the plants and the nutrients they carry. Leaves, grass, fruit, flowers, tubers, vines and stems are all fair game for the leaf-cutter ant. The foragers cut small holes in the plants that they harvest and bring them back to the colony for cultivation.
  
  

Cultivating

• Once the scraps of plants are in the nest, the forager ants give them to the gardeners, who use the scraps to feed the fungus. They chew the cuttings into smaller pieces, and then they compost the material, which makes the soil nutrient rich so the Leucocoprinus fungus can grow in it. When the gardener ants are finished, the within-nest generalists clear the waste material and take it out of the main colony.
  
  

Composting

• The within-nest generalist ants take waste and compost it. This keeps the material from harming developing new ants and also redistributes nutrients on the rain forest floor. Composting areas often have root masses growing into the storage area because of its nutrient density. This helps grow new plants that the leaf-cutter ants will then harvest, making them a valuable part of rain forest ecology.