Ants and their garden

This graphic was published in the July-August 2019 issue of American Scientist magazine, a publication of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society.

It is a snapshot of the complex social system of leafcutter ants and their process of cultivating plant matter to maintain a fungus garden that feeds the entire colony. The different steps illustrate how leafcutter ants harvest leaf fragments, carry them into the nest, and then use them to grow fungus gardens spread across the many chambers of the nest. The continuity of the colony is maintained by the queen, the only reproductive individual, and by the many workers that tend to the brood.

The Ants and Their Garden information graphic is used as outreach material by myrmecologists (ant experts) at the Smithsonian Institution. It was also selected for the exhibition “Visualize: Art Revealing Science” held at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Art Gallery. See the interview video produced by AAAS about the exhibit, where I discuss the making of this piece.