This huge head isn't for housing a big brain. Actually, it's a cage filled with muscles that power those sharp mandibles. This is a soldier of a leaf cutter ant belonging to the Atta genus that is cutting through the thick layer of skin near my knuckle. Although painful, it was worth having a first hand impression (pun intended 😂) of how powerful those mandibles are!
Recorded in Indio Maíz Biological Reserve, Nicaragua.
