Those are American leaf-cutter ants, genus Atta. They are the most
important consumer of plant matter in the American tropics. In a
sense, they are the principal herbivore. There are a _lot_ of them.
They are a major agricultural pest in Central and South America and
can strip a garden overnight. A single colony will harvest a ton of
plant material per year. The single queen will produce 200 million
workers during the 10- to 15-year lifetime of the colony. (That's
about one egg every two seconds--busy gal!) In some natural
environments, the biomass of the ants exceeds the biomass of
vertebrates. I wouldn't worry that they are endangered. -- Mixon
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