stridulation
The production of sound by rubbing one part of the body surface against another part.
strigilation
The licking of secretions from the body of another animal.
subapterous
Wings reduced in size and less than fully functional.
suberect
Referring to a hair that stands at an angle of about 45 degrees from the body surface.
subgenus
One or more distinctive species of common phylogenetic origin within a genus.
subsocial
Applied to the condition, or to the group showing it, in which the adults care for their nymphs or larvae for some period.
sulcus
A deep furrow or groove.
supercolony
A unicolonial population, in which workers move freely from one nest to another; so that the entire population is a single colony.
superorganism
Any society; such as, the colony of a eusocial insect species, possessing features of organization analogous to the physiological properties of a single organism.
The insect colony; for example, is divided into reproductive castes (similar to gonads) and worker castes (like somatic tissue); it may exchange nutrients by trophallaxis (analogous to the circulatory system); and so forth.
surface pheromone
A pheromone with an active space restricted so close to the body of the sending organism that direct contact, or something approaching it, must be made with the body in order to perceive the pheromone.
swarming
Colony reproduction in which one or more queens and a number of workers separate to establish a new colony.
When the queen, or queens, are accompanied by a small number of workers and they leave the main parental nest, the process is called budding.
When major portions of the colony separate, each with one or more queens (as in army ants), the process is called fission.
Swarming also applies to the mass exodus from the nests of reproductive forms at the beginning of the nuptial flight.
symbiont
An organism that lives in symbiosis (dependent relationship) with another species.
symbiosis
The intimate, relatively protracted, dependent relationship of members of one species with those of another species.
The three principal kinds of symbiosis are commensalism, mutualism, and parasitism.
symphile
A symbiont, in particular a solitary insect or other kind of arthropod, which is accepted to some extent by an insect colony and communicates with it amicably.
Most symphiles are licked, fed, or transported to the host brood chambers, or treated to a combination of all three.
synechthran
A symbiont, usually a scavenger, a parasite, or a predator, which is treated with hostility by the host colony.
Here are two additional word units that deal directly with "ants":
formic- and myrmeco-.
Index of additional Scientific and Technological Topics.
Bibliography of Entomology or Insect Terms (The Ants).
