Students in associate professor of natural resources and the environment Jeff Garnas’s forest health course got an up-close look — extremely up close — at the head of a tropical leafcutter ant, collected in Ecuador in 2022. University Instrumentation Center analytical scientists Nancy Cherim and Mark Townley imaged this ant head using a scanning electron microscope at 60x magnification.
“Leafcutter ants are fascinating, since they cultivate fungal gardens to serve as an external gut for the colony,” says Garnas, adding that?they also pose a threat to plantation-grown trees in the tropics. “The complex ‘ultrastucture’ on their bodies and heads also harbors bacteria that produce antibiotics that help the ants stay disease-free and to keep their garden free of ‘weeds,’ or parasitic fungi.” The microscopy magnification of the odor receptors on the ant’s antennae support his lessons on chemically-mediated communication in insects, which has pest management implications.
And while roses are red, ant heads are not: Cherim and Townley colorized the image, giving it the appearance of an entomological Valentine.
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Written By:
Beth Potier | UNH Marketing | beth.potier@unh.edu | 2-1566
