Interactions among leaf toughness, chemistry, and harvesting by attine ants

Abstract. 1. Young and mature leaves of a tropical legume, Inga edulis var. minutula Schery, are strikingly different in secondary chemistry, especially condensed tannins, and leaf toughness.
2. Bioassays with the two different leaf types indicate that leaf cutter ants, Atta cephalotes (L.), always find mature leaves relatively more acceptable than young leaves when selection was based on chemical cues.
3. Since extracts of young leaves show greziter inhibition of fungal pectinases we suggest that leaf-cutter ants are capable of distinguishing which leaf types are most suitable for the growth of their symbiotic fungus.
4. However, mature leaves are 3 times tougher than young leaves and this prevents leaf-cutter ants from harvesting the more suitable mature leaves.
5. Consequently, bioassays which require cutting before leaf removal indicate that some colonies actually harvest more from the less suitable young leaves.
6. We suggest that the quality of a colony's habitat may indicate whether a colony will harvest more of the less suitable young leaves. Colonies which are harvesting from highly suitable host plants avoid the tropical legume I.edulis while those in poorer habitats accept I.edulis but, because of leaf toughness, mostly harvest the less suitable young leaves.