An illustration shows the colony with the following different society members:

• Major workers gather leaves to grow the fungus on which the colony feeds. They use sawlike mandibles to cut and carry leaf tissue. Smaller worker ants ride the leaves, alert for potential threats
• The queen has one purpose: laying eggs. Most eggs become workers, which are nonreproducing females. Males exist only to reproduce. Females that will become queens leave the nest, mate, and lay eggs to start a new colony.
• Dump chambers contains wastes, including dead fungus and dead ants. Opening to the outside provide ventilation.
• Minor workers of several castes tend the fungus gardens. They chop leaves into a paste, clean and tend the gardens, infect new gardens with fungus, and harvest fungus for the colony.
• Soldiers are the largest workers. They guard the nest and respond quickly to danger.