Ant and Related Entomology Terms

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 relaying of food from one ant worker to another one in the course of transporting it back to the nest: Sally sat and watched the ants' chain transport continue for a long time, and was amazed at their fortitude and perseverance.

The procedure during which ant queens, or royal pairs in the case of termites, seal themselves off in cells: During the course of claustral colony founding,the ant queens 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).

Referring to something club-shaped; claviform: Some organisms have such clavate antennae, with the thicker end towards the tip.

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".

The degree of blood kinship between two individuals: Coefficient of relationship is the probability that a gene possessed by one organism is also possessed by another organism through common descent in the previous few generations.

An organized unit of individuals, other than a single mated pair: A colony of ants constructs nests or rears offspring in a cooperative manner, as opposed to "aggregation".

The multiplication of colonies by the departure of one or more reproductive forms: Colony fission is 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 honey bees can be regarded as a special form of colony fission.

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

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

An invasion conducted by army ants in branching columns: A column raid (boundaries or limits) is headed by a relatively small group of workers laying chemical trails and capturing prey.

A symbiosis in which members of one species are benefited while those of the other species are neither benefited nor harmed: One example of commensalism is the coexistence of barnacles on whales.

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.

Regarding something having a heart-shaped outline; cordiform: Some insects have a cordate head, or a leaf can be cordate with a point at the apex and a notch at the base of the leaf.

One of a pair of endocrine organs of young anthropoids located just behind the brain: The corpora allata are the source of the juvenile hormone neotenin.

Referring to a body surface that is wrinkled in appearance: The armadillo is protected by a corrugated leathery armour shell.