This morning I noticed these leaves on the pedestals on either side of the door that leads from the street to my front garden, but it wasn’t until Paciano arrived that I noticed the 3 inch wide trail of leaf parts that extended  almost the entire distance across my lot from the pedestals to the kitchen door and then mysteriously stopped!  It was solid stone the entire way and there was no hole in site that might have led into their underground abode.  Why would they have stopped there and why so many different segments–so many that they formed a solid carpet?  If it had been a rain, it would have washed the leaves away or at least disarranged them. These tiny segments, much smalled than the leaves pictured above, formed an absolutely straight and orderly pathway almmost entired covered with green. It indicated that thousands of ants had set down their burdens at exactly the same time and left. What could have caused this? In my 23 years of observing leafcutter ant behavior, I had never seen it before.

But, an equal mystery is why in the world didn’t I take a photo?

And..how strange. As I was getting ready to post this blog, I saw a movement on my arm and you guessed it…it was an ant!  Not a leafcutter, however.

Two other posts on leafcutter ants:

The Ants Go Marching Home Again Until They Don’t

Hormigas!!!!

For Bushboy’s Last on the Card Prompt