A lodging created by ants: Ants transform large cavities in the soil and tree trunks by filling them with carton nests whose internal structure is partitioned and resembles a sponge. A carton nest consists of a cardboard-like substance made up of chewed plant material often mixed with soil, and made by certain insects for building nests.

The ant carton consists of particles of wood, dry vegetable material, and soil glued together with sugary secretions collected by the ants from aphids and other homopteran insects (bugs that pierce plant tissues and suck out the sap).

The fungal mycelium (loose network of delicate filaments hyphae or threadlike filaments that form the body of a fungus) grows through the walls of the carton which are strengthened by the symbiotic fungus which reinforces them in the same way that steel mesh or rods reinforce the walls of buildings.

The condition of one species of ants raiding the food stores of another ant species: Cleptobiosis involves the scavenging of the refuse piles of another species, but does not nest in close association with it.

Cleptobiosis is a widespread form of competitive exploitation in ants known as "robbing food" or "stealing food".

A nest containing colonies of two or more species of social insects: A compound nest can exist up to the point where the galleries of the nests anastomose (come together or open into each other) and the adults sometimes intermingle, but the broods of the species are still kept separate.

A nest containing colonies of two or more species of social insects: In a mixed nest, there is a mingling of both the adults and the broods.

A nest at least part of which is constructed of a mound of soil or carton material that projects above the ground surface: In the mound nest, the term carton materia refers to a cardboard-like substance consisting of chewed plant material, often mixed with soil, and made by certain insects for building lodgings.

The architecture of the mound is often elaborate, specific in plan to the species, and evidently adapted to contribute to microclimate control within the dwelling place.

The distinctive scent of a nest, by which its inhabitants can distinguish their own nest from those belonging to other colonies or at least from the surrounding environment: Certain insects, for example honey bees and some ants, can orient themselves toward their nests by means of the nest odor.

It is possible that the nest odor is the same as the "colony odor" in some cases. The nest odor of honey bees is often referred to as the "hive aura" or "hive odor".