Leaf Cutter Ants Display Intelligent Labor Skills

It has been known for a long time that ants have a seriously evolved societal structure within their anthill colonies. Scientists have recently observed that they are also capable of dividing labor skills based on which members of the colony are most suitable for certain tasks. Scientists in Oregon have noticed that the younger leaf cutting ants are always the ones that use their sharp mandibles to cut leaves into smaller sections in order that they can be more easily carried away. They have observed that over time as the ants grow older and their mandibles grow more dull and less effective at cutting leaves they shift away from doing it and give that task over to younger ants while they take over the task of exclusively carrying away the cut leaves, which scientists call leaf disks. In case you are wondering A Leaf Cutter Ant Queen can live for about 14 years and deliver in excess of 150 million offspring in her lifetime.