The Leafcutter Ant (Atta cephalotes) is a species of leafcutter ant in the tribe Attini (the fungus-growing ants). A single colony of ants can contain up to 5 million members, and each colony has a queen that can live more than 15 years. The colony comprises different castes, known as 'task partitioning', and each caste has a different job to do.
The small "minima" workers clean the leaves of parasites, chase off parasitic phorid flies, and tend the fungus gardens; the medium "media" workers cut the leaves into pieces and carry them to nest; and the large "maxima" workers (soldiers) protect the colony from intruders.
This type of ant lives in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. They clip off large pieces of leaves and carry them in their mandibles all the way back to their underground nests. There, they process the bits of leaves and grow a special fungus on it which they eat in order to obtain energy.