The daily foraging cycle of the leaf-cutter ant was also determined. Foraging increases rapidly during daybreak and remained high during the daylight hours but returned to low levels by nightfall. In some colonies, foraging is limited to the night. During the day some types of carpenter ants (especially species Camponotus) guard the trees the leaf-cutting ants use for foraging. This prevents that Atta foragers from foraging during the day. When nightfall comes the carpenter ants leave and the leaf-cutter ants forage during the night to make up lost foraging during the day. Maximum rates of harvest occur from 3:00pm to 4:00 pm. Roces, Holldobler, Tautz, Kleineidam, and Krumme found that when leaf-cutting ants were cutting leaves, their metabolic rate was dramatically above their resting rate. It was found that cutting leaf tissue use up 31 (31 000 %) times more energy than in a resting state. They also found that the size of the leaf cut depended on the amount of energy invested. The more energy spent in a short amount of time, the smaller the size of leaf cut. This is why when cutting at the stem of a plant, the ants cut such small pieces (personal observation).

H.L. Vasconcelos (1997) found that the number of attacks on a given species was mainly determined by its abundance in that area. Thus changes in species composition near an ant colony will result a change in the type of resources brought into the colony. His study showed that there is no short term variation in the amount of secondary compounds or leaf nutrients in response to defoliation of a plant by the ants. The reason why some plants are only partially defoliated and some are fully defoliated is that only the preferred leaves are cut by the ants. In large trees there differences in light conditions in the canopy which causes changes in the leaf structure and content. Immature trees have less variation in nutrient and content of its leaves and therefore is more likely to be totally defoliated than older and larger trees. On the average, 85.7% of attacks on a given tree results in complete defoliation (Vasconcelos 1997). Defense
The ants have many defense mechanisms and behavior patterns. Some ants guard the nests entrances. In doing this they are usually still and are in the stilt-legged position. Stilt-legged position is when the ant is still and when its head is pointing upward and its mandibles are open. Another defense mechanism is capping.