In parts South America, Leaf Cutting Ant queens are roasted to make a side dish. In Brazil, they are combined with a special flour to make a popular dish.

The tiny leafcutter ants have large mandibles with fine sharp teeth that make it possible to "cut" the leaves and maneuver them around. Queens are significantly larger than males, and they often look much like sting less wasps due to their long wings. A colony of Leaf cutting Ants is comprised of castes; workers, females, and males. The females are the workers, and the males are born only to reproduce with the queen. For the most part, there is only one queen to each colony, but if it is big enough, there can be two or even three. The only ants that can fly are the queens and the drones (or males that are only around to mate with the queen). However, after she mates, the queen loses her wings.

The sole job of the queen is to lay eggs and found new colonies. When a queen wants to found a new colony, she flies away in search of a drone to mate with. Then she will begin to lay her eggs (often times, a queen may lay thousands of eggs a day. Once hatched, the ants immediately go to work. Trees in the vicinity of a Leaf cutting Ant nest are usually stripped bare of leaves.