ABSTRACT
Pest species of leaf-cutting ants are restricted to the two genera Acromyrmex and Atta and, like the whole tribe Attini to which they belong, they are confined to the New World approximately between the latitudes 33°N and 44°S. Certainly pest problems in the species-poor areas of Central and North America are much less acute than they are in the south. The fact that all of some individual species have reputations as pests is attributable to their striking degree of polyphagy, and that they are capable of becoming dominant herbivores. As they are indigenous pests, the history of leaf-cutting ant problems reflects the history of man's changing ecology, and in particular, the way he obtains food. Leaf-cutting ants would be one among many factors determining the carrying capacity of the land, which supported only low populations of forest-living hunter gatherers. As the results of systematic scientific research were applied to agriculture, man's relations with leaf-cutting ants altered once again.
