honey pot, honeypot
Referring to members of the specialized physiological caste of Myrmecocystus which store large quantities of sugary liquid in their hugely expanded crops.
honeydew
A sugar-rich fluid derived from the phloem sap (two main types of tissue in vascular plants which conducts synthesized nutrients) of plants and passed as excrement through the guts of sap-feeding aphids and other insects.
Honeydew is the principal food of many kinds of ants.
humerus
The "shoulder", an anterior corner of the pronotum, or the anterior most segment of the thorax.
hymenopteran
A reference to the insect order Hymenoptera (an extensive order of highly specialized insects); comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants.
The name refers to the membranous wings of the insects, and is derived from the Ancient Greek humen, "membrane" and pteron, "win". The hind wings are connected to the fore wings by a series of hooks called hamuli.
hymenopterous
Referring to an individual or traits of individuals belonging to the insect order Hymenoptera which consists of wasps, bees, and ants.
hypogaeic
Living primarily underground (subterranean) or at least beneath cover; such as, leaf litter, stones, and dead bark (cryptobiotic).
imaginal disc
A relatively undifferentiated tissue mass occurring in the body of a larva which is destined to develop later into an adult organ.
imago
The adult insect.
In termites, the term is usually applied only to adult primary reproductives (males and fertile females).
inclusive fitness
The sum of an individual's own fitness plus all the individual's influence on the fitness of relatives other than direct descendants; hence, the total effect of individual selection and kin selection.
incrassate
Conspicuously swollen; especially, near the tip, as an antenna.
individualistic model
The hypothetical system in which individuals judge others to be kin or non-kin according to whether they possess certain alleles (members of a pair or series of genes that occupy a specific position on a specific chromosome) which encode a particular recognition label.
The alleles may be recognition alleles in the strict sense, controlling both the production of the pheromone and its perception, or they may prescribe a less direct phenotype matching system.
infrabuccal pocket
A cavity on the floor of the buccal chamber in which indigestible material accumulates and is compacted for later disposal.
Buccal refers to part of the cheek or the mouth.
ingluvial
Referring to the crop, the distensible middle portion of the fore gut in which in many species liquid food is stored.
inquilinism, permanent social parasitism
The relation in which a socially parasitic species spends the entire life cycle in the nests of its host species.
Workers are either lacking or, if present, scarce and degenerate in behavior. This condition is sometimes referred to loosely as permanent parasitism.
insect society
In the strict sense, a colony of eusocial insects; such as, ants, termites, eusocial wasps, or bees.
In the broad sense, any group of presocial or eusocial insects.
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).
