Hairy-headed leafcutter ant

Atta cephalotes · Order: Hymenoptera · Family: Formicidae

Also called: Leaf-cutter ant

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Hairy-headed leafcutter ant
Photo: Biosedbergh, CC BY

The hairy-headed leafcutter ant is a large tropical ant that farms fungus for food. Its nests can be up to 7 m deep and are placed where breezes can remove excess CO₂ from the fungus chambers. Colonies occupy about 200 m² on the rainforest floor and are found from Mexico to Bolivia, including parts of Brazil.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Atta cephalotes is called the hairy-headed leafcutter ant.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

Nests can be as deep as 7 m and are positioned to let breezes clear dangerous CO₂ levels from the fungus they grow. A colony typically spreads over roughly 200 m² of rainforest floor.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

Workers collect leaves and bring them back to the nest to cultivate fungus. The cultivated fungus is the ant’s primary food source.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

The colony has three castes: tiny minims, medium-sized medias, and large majors.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

They live throughout the Neotropical region, from Mexico down to Bolivia, with separate populations in Amazonas and northeastern Brazil.

Source: Wikipedia

Status: native in North America. Source: iNaturalist

Same family (Formicidae)

Eastern Black Carpenter AntEastern Black Carpenter AntCamponotus pennsylvanicusCan damage your homeRed Imported Fire AntRed Imported Fire AntSolenopsis invictaCan stingAmerican Winter AntAmerican Winter AntPrenolepis imparisArgentine AntArgentine AntLinepithema humileNuisance, not dangerousImmigrant Pavement AntImmigrant Pavement AntTetramorium immigransCan stingOdorous House AntOdorous House AntTapinoma sessileCan damage your home

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atta_cephalotes

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.