I've seen statistics provided by "them" that say pound for pound,
humans vs. ants, they outweigh us. As always, what "they" say is
subject to further verification, but it's certainly thought provoking
if true. That's quite a few ants.
On Nov 15, 2009, at 1:21 PM, Mixon Bill wrote:
Those are American leaf-cutter ants, genus Atta. They are the most
important consumer of plant matter in the American tropics. In a
sense, they are the principal herbivore. There are a _lot_ of them.
They are a major agricultural pest in Central and South America and
can strip a garden overnight. A single colony will harvest a ton of
plant material per year. The single queen will produce 200 million
workers during the 10- to 15-year lifetime of the colony. (That's
about one egg every two seconds--busy gal!) In some natural
environments, the biomass of the ants exceeds the biomass of
vertebrates. I wouldn't worry that they are endangered. -- Mixon
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