Ant and Related Entomology Terms

(terms restricted to the study of social insects; such as, ants and words that apply generally to entomology)

dealate, dealated
Referring to a female insect that has shed her wings, as an inseminated female; also the condition of having shed the wings.
decumbent
A reference to a hair that stands 10 to 40 degrees from the surface of an ant's body.
delation
The removal of the wings by the ant queens (and also by males in the termites) during or immediately following the nuptial flight and prior to colony foundation.
domatia (pl), domatium (s)
Specialized structures; such as, inflated stems, used by ant plants for the housing of ant colonies.

Domatia (from Latin domus, "home") are tiny chambers produced by plants that house arthropods.

Domatia differ from galls in that they are produced by the plant rather than being induced by their inhabitants.

Ant domatia are inhabited by ants, in what is considered to be a mutualist relationship between the ants and the plants.

dominance hierarchy, dominance order
The physical domination of some members of a group by other members, in relatively orderly and long-lasting patterns.

Except for the highest-ranking and lowest-ranking individuals, a given member will dominate one or more of its companions and be dominated in turn by one or more of the others.

The hierarchy is initiated and sustained by hostile behavior, albeit sometimes of a subtle and indirect nature.

dorsum
The upper surface.
dulosis, slavery
The relation in which workers of a parasitic (dulotic) ant species raid the nests of another species, capture brood (usually in the form of pupae), and rear them as enslaved nest mates.
emigration
The movement of a colony from one nest site to another.
encounter
A physical act or threat of action by one individual or colony that reduces the freedom or genetic fitness of another.
enemy specification
The exaggerated alarm response to species of ants and other arthropods hat pose an unusually severe threat to the colony.
epigaeic
Living, or at least foraging, primarily above ground; as opposed to hypogaeic.
erect
A reference to a hair that stands straight up, or nearly straight up, from the cuticle.
ergatogyne
Any form morphologically intermediate between the worker and the queen.
ergatoid male, ergatomorphic male
An individual ant with normal male genitalia and a worker-like body.
ertagoid reproductive
a supplementary reproductive termite without a trace of wing buds, usually larval in external form, and with a distinctively rounded head.

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).