An alteration in behavior or physiology within a species brought about by signals that are directed in neither space nor time: A simple example of social facilitation, is when an activity increases merely from the sight or sound (or other form of stimulation) coming from other individuals engaged in the same activity.

The relation in which a socially parasitic species spends the entire life cycle in the nests of its host species: The condition of inquilinism occurs when ant workers are either lacking or, if present, scarce and degenerate in behavior. This condition is sometimes referred to loosely as "permanent parasitism"..

The anthropological study of human societies, with particular reference to kinship systems, social roles, tribal organization, community structure, classes, and castes, political, economic, and religious institutions, and the like.

A process by which liquid food is carried between the mandibles: By means of the social buckets, food can be shared with nest mates by mouth-to-mouth contact

The maintenance of steady states at the level of the society: Social homeostasis can be balanced either by control of the nest microclimate or by regulation of the population density, behavior, and physiology of the group members as a whole.

An insect that shares the essentials of life, like shelter, food, defense, and cooperation in reproduction: In the strict sense, a true social insect is one that belongs to a eusocial species; in other words, it is an ant, a termite, or one of the eusocial wasps or bees.

In the broad sense, a social insect is one that belongs to either a pre-social or eusocial species.

The co-existence in the same nest of two species of social insects: In social parasiism. one species is parasitically dependent on the other.

Social parasiism can also be applied loosely to the relation between symphiles and their social insect hosts.

The first segment of the gastral gut, also called the crop, where liquid food can be stored: The social stomach is quite useful because the contents can be passed to nest mates by regurgitation.

The procedures by which individual ants undergo changes in caste, behavior, and physical location incident to colonial development: The behavior of a colony of ants as a whole, or social genesis, can be understood only if the programs and positional effects of the individual members are both specified and explained more deeply at the physiological level, however such data is still far from being complete.

Parasitism in which a queen of one species enters an alien nest, usually belonging to another species, kills or renders the resident queen infertile, and takes her place: In a temporary social parasitism, the population of the colony then becomes increasingly dominated by the offspring of the parasite queen as the host workers die from natural causes.