These leaves on the ground
below the firebush.
They were cut off and fell
to the ground. Leafcutter ants. From that pile of leaves on the
ground, there is a thread. A moving thread of leaf bits being carried
home by ants.
Along the front of the
steps.
Across the pavers next to
the shed.
To this hole in the
ground, being carried down, one by one.
The ants harvest the
leaves, but not for food. They carry them underground and farm with
them. They chew them up, compost them, inoculate them with a particular
fungus, tend the crop, and harvest the tidbits the fungus produces.
Leaf cutter ants invented
farming 50 million years before we did!
No comments:
Post a Comment