Leafcutter ant
Acromyrmex octospinosus
Temperature
24–26 °C
Humidity
80–90 %
Hibernation
None needed
Where it comes from
- Range
- Central America, northern South America and the Caribbean
- Size
- Workers 2–10 mm, queen 15–20 mm
- Queens
- One queen
Keeping them
- Diet
- Fresh leaves and petals to feed their fungus — the fungus feeds them
- Founding
- Claustral, but the queen carries a pellet of fungus and the garden must survive with her
- Brood development
- Egg to worker in roughly 6–8 weeks at 25 °C
- Nest
- A humid fungus chamber plus a foraging arena — condensation must not drip
- Wintering
- No winter rest — keep them warm all year
You are keeping a fungus as much as an ant colony, and the fungus is the fragile half: it dies if the air dries out and rots if water drips on it. You also need pesticide-free leaves every week of the year, which is the part most keepers underestimate.
Check it yourself
General guidance from the usual beginner references — treat it as a starting point, not as a rule your colony has agreed to.