A group of individuals, other than a single mated pair, which constructs nests or rears offspring in a cooperative manner; as opposed to aggregation.

An independent settlement sent out by a mother-Greek city.

Once established, the colony was expected to be self-sufficient.

Colonies were sent out throughout Greek history, but the great age of Greek colonization extended from about 750 to 550 B.C.

The procedure during which ant queens, or royal pairs in the case of termites, seal themselves off in cells and rear the first generation of workers on nutrients obtained mostly or entirely from their own storage tissues, including fat bodies and histolysed wing muscles (dissolution and absorption of tissue).

The multiplication of colonies by the departure of one or more reproductive forms, accompanied by groups of workers, from the parental nest, leaving behind comparable units to perpetuate the "parental" colony.

This mode is referred to occasionally as hesmosis in ant literature and sociotomy in termite literature. Swarming in honey bees can be regarded as a special form of colony fission.

The odor found on the bodies of social insects which is peculiar to a given colony.

By smelling the colony odor of another member of the same species, an insect is able to determine whether it is a nest mate.

The procedure during which the queen founds the colony by isolating herself in a chamber but occasionally leaves to forage for part of her food supply.