Leaf-cutter ants

The farmers of the insect world, leaf-cutter ants grow their own food in underground fungus farms. Pieces of leaf are carried hundreds of metres in impressive processions, with each ant carrying a piece up to 50 times its own body weight. That's like one of us carrying a medium-sized van. The leaves are used to create fungus gardens that feed the whole colony - millions and millions of ants. Soldiers protect the huge nest and the irreplaceable queen at all costs, as Sir David Attenborough discovered while delivering a piece to camera from the top of an ant nest for Trials of Life.

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