Though the leaf cutter ant feeds on a fungus that it grows in its nest, it destroys plants whose leaves it uses to cultivate the fungus.

Rice University recently announced that research by biologists from their school, Sâo Paulo State University in Rio Claro, Brazil, and the University of Texas at Austin found that a parasite that attacks the leaf cutter ant's food source, a specialized fungus that it grows and cultivates in its nest, is more prevalent and adaptable than previously thought, This information could lead to new control methods for the garden pest.

According to Scott Solomon, an evolutionary biologist at Rice University, the ants, which are found from the southern U.S. to Argentina, are hard to control with baits and poisons because of the fact that they grow their own food. There are at least 40 species, including the Texas native Atta texana, which also inhabits Louisiana.

Though the ants do not eat plants, they damage them by cutting and gathering leaves to feed the fungus. A leaf-cutter colony can reportedly be more than 60 feet deep and hundreds of feet wide, containing millions of worker ants. In Texas, the ants are known to harm citrus, plum, peach and other fruit trees, ornamental plants and more.

The parasite that attacks the ants' fungal crops was first identified about 25 years ago. The new research revealed 61 new strains of it, more than three times the number that had been previously known. And earlier studies suggested that it was a highly specialized species but the new study found it is more of a generalist: the same genetic variant was found invading the farms of distantly related fungus-growing ant species, and as many as three different forms of the parasites were found in the same ant colony.

"That could be significant because the more general and broadly applicable a control strategy is, the more economical it is to develop and test, " Solomon said. "Based on what we know so far, it could be possible to develop (a parasite) based control strategy in which a single form of the parasite could be used to target several different species of ant. "