Unable to digest the cellulose in the leaves directly, they maintain fungus gardens that are the colony's primary food source.

Minims are the smallest workers, and look after the growing brood or care for the fungus gardens.

S. diego from Colombia was found to build a fungus garden about 20 cm below the surface.

Escovopsis turns out to be a highly virulent pathogen that can devastate a fungus garden in a couple of days.

The smallest workers (the minims) mainly work in the nest, caring for the brood and tending the fungus garden.

During this initial stage of nest development, the queen is the sole cultivator of the new fungus garden.

Atta ants dispose of waste from the fungus garden and other parts of the nest into special waste chambers.

The minima act as nurses and tend the fungus garden fed on leaves.

They also cleared large meadows out of the forests, felling the trees like beaver and chewing them up to create underground fungus gardens.

The ants then use the dung to fertilize their fungus gardens, and later discard the seeds onto refuse piles just outside their nest.