Page "Atta (genus)" Paragraph 6

The high degree of polymorphism in this genus is also suggestive of its high degree of advancement.

Every caste has a specific function, and some remarkably advanced phenomena have been observed in Atta species.

An example of such is the behaviour of the minim ants, which climb on the cut sections of leaf whilst they are carried back to the nest by the media workers to protect the latter from a particular species of phorid fly that parasitises the leaf-carrying caste.

While hitchhiking, the minims also work to decontaminate the fragment before it arrives at the nest, and feed on the sap of the leaf.

That the minims behave in this way demonstrates the highly derived character of the species.

Atta cephalotes | A. cephalotes at work