Ant and Related Entomology Terms

The coordinated transport of a food item by two or more workers: While sitting next to the ant hill near her home, Mary watched a group transport involving two ants carrying a large leaf up the side of the mound.

An individual ant containing patches of both male and female tissue: Birds, crustaceans, and insects can be gynandromorphs in that they have physical characteristics of both sexes, and often on different parts of the body.

A female that is a member of the reproductive caste: A gene can be the main female, particularly of ants, wasps, and bees, whether functioning as a life-giving insect at the moment or not, for example, an ant queen in the broad sense.

Pertaining to being like a queen; queen-like: A gynecoid ant, specifically an ant worker, possesses some typically queen features, such as an enlarged abdomen.

A female containing patches of tissue of both the queen and worker castes: In Tom's book on ants, he read about the term gynergate as being a "female-worker", consisting of two kinds of ants, the queen and the worker.

The mode of sex determination in which males are derived from haploid (single set of unpaired chromosomes) eggs and females from diploid (two sets of chromosomes) eggs; sometimes known as arrhenotoky.: Haplodiploidy occurs among wasps, bees, ants, spider mites, and beetles.

The creation of a colony by only one queen: In comparison to haplometrosis, "pleometrosis" is established by several queens.

An ant that gathers and feeds on vegetation: There is general agreement among students of ant ecology that harvester ants strongly alter the abundance and local distribution of flowering plants, especially in deserts, grasslands, and other xeric (dry) habitats where the ants are most abundant.

An ant species that feed substantially on seeds and store them in their nests: Harvesting ants collect seeds, called seed predation, and the seeds are stored in their communal enclosed spaces, termed granaries.

Referring to the process of development which is gradual and lacks a sharp separation into larval, pupal, and adult stages: Termites, for example, are hemimetabolous, as opposed to "holometabolous" distinct larval, pupal, and adult stages).

Same as colony swarming, that is, the reproduction of colonies by the separation of colony fragments accompanied by fertile queens.

The metabolic dissolution and absorption of a tissue; such as, the wing muscles of the young queen during colony founding.

Undergoing a complete metamorphosis (change in form and habits) during development, with distinct larval, pupal, and adult stages.

The maintenance of a steady state; especially, a physiological or social condition, by means of self-regulation through internal feedback responses.

A member of, or pertaining to, the insect order Homoptera, which includes the aphids, jumping plant lice, treehoppers, spittlebugs, whiteflies, and related groups.