In the 21st century, the hormiga culona has leaped from the rustic budare to the white tablecloths of some of the world’s most avant-garde restaurants. This is due in no small part to the work of Colombian chef Leonor Espinosa, whose restaurant Leo in Bogotá has been repeatedly named one of the best in Latin America. Espinosa, an economist turned chef, has made it her mission to document, preserve, and elevate the biodiversity of Colombian cuisine.
Let us address the elephant—or rather, the ant—in the room. The name culona derives from culo , a Spanish word for buttocks or rear end. It is a direct reference to the ant’s most striking anatomical feature: an abdomen so disproportionately large, swollen, and gleaming that it constitutes nearly two-thirds of the insect’s total body mass. This is no accident of nature. The ants consumed are not the sterile, wiry workers that one sees marching in perfect file across a forest floor. They are future queens . hormigas culonas