Last weekend, we travelled to Turrialba, a gorgeous area on the Eastern (Caribbean) side of Costa Rica. Luckily, we left 2 days before the active volcano in town erupted (http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/Costa-Rican-Volcano-Erupts-80904842.html)! While there, we took a guided tour through some protected rainforest. By far, the most interesting thing we learned about were the leafcutter ants. If you click the picture below, you can see them a little better -- they´re the little guys under the bright green pieces of leaves.
These little suckers are incredible. They spend their entire lives walking a very specific path, carrying pieces of leaves that weigh up to 30 times their body weight (the equivalent of a human carrying a bulldozer!) which they then use to grow a fungus that feeds the queen and the rest of the colony. They work so hard and so non-stop, you can actually see a depression in the land...FROM ANTS! You can see this in the picture at the top. My first reaction to these little guys was one of respect and admiration for their hard work. Then I learned that because they work so hard and so non-stop, they only live about 5-7 days (about a quarter of the life expectancy of other ants)!When I get home, I´m putting this picture next to my desk.
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