This is a glossary of terms used in the descriptions of ants.
Contents
A
- alate
- winged reproductive male or female ant
B
- Berlese funnel
see also Winkler extraction
device used to extract ants and other living organism from soil and leaf-litter samples; a sample is placed on a screen with a funnel beneath, and a heat source above; the drying forces the animals downwards, where they fall into a collecting jar, usually filled with alcohol- bivouac
- in army and driver ants, nest formed by the bodies of the ants themselves to protect the queen and larvae
D
- dulosis
- see slave-making
- dichthadiiform
- wingless queen with enlarged gaster, having a broadened head, very small eyes and worker-like alitrunk
- domatium
see also myrmecodomatium
in plants, tiny chamber produced by plants to house arthropods
E
- epigaeic
see also hypogaeic
living or foraging above the ground- ergate
- a member of the non-reproductive, laboring caste.
- ergatogyne
see also ergatoid
denotes any intercaste female morphologically intermediate between workers and (winged) queens, not restricted to the reproductive caste; formerly often used interchangeably to refer to ergatoid queens- ergatoid
see also ergatogyne
a wingless (dealate) reproductive adult ant, anatomically intermediate in form between workers and winged queens or males
F
- fungivorous
- feeding on fungi
G
- gamergate
- a mated, egg-laying, female worker in species lacking a queen
- granivorous
- seed herbivory, feeding on grain
- gyne
- a member of the female reproductive caste
H
- haplometrosis
see also pleometrosis
colony founding by a single queen- hypogaeic
see also epigaeic
subterranean, living below the ground, or at least beneath the leaf litter, stones or dead bark
M
- mermithergate
see also mermithogyne
"parasitogenic" phenotype of worker ants, caused by mermithid nematodes- mermithogyne
see also mermithergate
"parasitogenic" phenotype of gynes, caused by mermithid nematodes- monandry
see also polyandry
queen mating with a single male- monodomy
see also polydomy
colony housing arrangement in a single nest- monogyny
see also polygyny, primary monogyny, secondary monogyny
nest arrangement containing a single queen- multicoloniality
see also unicoloniality
nest arrangement of a population of ants consisting of multiple independent colonies (monodomous or polydomous)- myrmecochory
- seed dispersal by ants
- myrmecodomatium
see also domatium
domatium housed by ants- myrmecologist
- a student of ants
- myrmecology
- the study of ants
- myrmecophily
- association of various organisms with ants
- myrmecophyte
- plant that lives in a mutualistic association with ants
N
- nanitic
- a worker of the first generation, usually smaller in size than subsequent generations
O
- oligogyny
- nest arrangement with multiple queens, defined by worker tolerance towards all queens in the colony and antagonism among the queens
P
- pheromone trail
see also domatium
trail of chemical compounds secreted by ants to guide nestmates to a target (usually food)- pilosity
- quality of being covered with hair
- pleometrosis
see also haplometrosis
colony founding by multiple queens- plerergate
- see replete
- polyandry
see also monandry
queen mating with multiple males- polydomy
see also monodomy
colony arrangement housed in multiple separate nests- polyethism
- division of labor, the development of different roles
- polygyny
see also monogyny, primary polygyny, secondary polygyny
nest arrangement containing multiple queens- polymorphism
- in social insects, having more than one caste within the same sex
- primary monogyny
see also monogyny
single queen founding a colony (haplometrosis), with no additional queens incorporated into the colony- primary polygyny
see also polygyny
colony founding by multiple queens (pleometrosis), with more than one queen surviving
Q
- queen
- see gyne
R
- replete
- worker ant that functions as a living larder, having an enlarged abdomen filled with liquid food
- secondary monogyny
see also monogyny
colony founding by multiple queens (pleometrosis), a single queen survive
S
- secondary polygyny
see also polygyny
colony founding by a single queen (haplometrosis), with additional queens incorporated into the colony at a later stage, usually by adoption or fusion with other colonies- slave-making
- the capture of brood of other ant species that is then reared as slaves
T
- tandem running
see also pheromone trail
recruitment method used by some species of ants, where one ant leads a single, closely following nestmate to a target (usually food)- trail pheromone
- see pheromone trail
- trophallaxis
- transfer of liquid food among family members or guest organisms
- trophic egg
- non-viable egg laid by the queen to be used as a source of nutrition
- trophobiosis
- mutualistic relationships between ants and other insects
U
- unicoloniality
see also multicoloniality
a population of ants inhabiting a single large polydomous colony
W
- Winkler extraction
see also Berlese funnel
device used to extract ants and other living organism from soil and leaf-litter samples; a sample is placed inside an inner bag constructed from cloth mesh, which is suspended in a second bag containing a funnel leading to a collecting jar, usually filled with alcohol; the device is hung up in the air and passively extracts escaping animals
See also
References
- ^ Agosti, Donat; Majer, Jonathan D.; Alonso, Leeanne E.; Schultz, Ted R., eds. (2000). Ants: Standard Methods for Measuring and Monitoring Biodiversity. Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 1-56098-885-1.
- Schmidt, C. A; Shattuck, S. O. (2014). "The Higher Classification of the Ant Subfamily Ponerinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), with a Review of Ponerine Ecology and Behavior". Zootaxa. 3817 (1): 1–242. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3817.1.1. PMID 24943802.
- Brown, W. L. Jr. (1960). "Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. III Tribe Amblyoponini (Hymenoptera)". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 122: 143–230.
- ^ Michael Allaby (2012). A Dictionary of Plant Sciences. OUP Oxford. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-19-960057-1.
- ^ Peeters, C. P. (1991). "Ergatoid queens and intercastes in ants: Two distinct adult forms which look morphologically intermediate between workers and winged queens". Insectes Sociaux. 38 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1007/BF01242708. S2CID 19188793.
- ^ Wilson, Edward O.; Hölldobler, Bert (1977). "The number of queens: An important trait in ant evolution". Naturwissenschaften. 64 (1): 8–15. Bibcode:1977NW.....64....8H. doi:10.1007/bf00439886. S2CID 13004419.
- ^ Csősz, S.; Majoros, G. (2009). "Ontogenetic origin of mermithogenic Myrmica phenotypes (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)". Insectes Sociaux. 56 (1): 70–76. doi:10.1007/s00040-008-1040-3. S2CID 24435877.
- ^ Heinze, Jürgen; Tsuji, Kazuki (1995). "Ant reproductive strategies". Researches on Population Ecology. 37 (2): 135–149. Bibcode:1995PopEc..37..135H. doi:10.1007/BF02515814. S2CID 21948488.
- ^ Robinson, Elva JH (2014). "Polydomy: the organisation and adaptive function of complex nest systems in ants". Current Opinion in Insect Science. 5: 37–43. Bibcode:2014COIS....5...37R. doi:10.1016/j.cois.2014.09.002. PMID 32846740.
- Pfeiffer, Martin; Huttenlocher, Heiko; Ayasse, Manfred (2010). "Myrmecochorous plants use chemical mimicry to cheat seed-dispersing ants". Functional Ecology. 24 (3): 545–555. Bibcode:2010FuEco..24..545P. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2435.2009.01661.x.
- Mynhardt, Glené (2013). "Declassifying Myrmecophily in the Coleoptera to Promote the Study of Ant-Beetle Symbioses". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 2013 (7): 1–8. doi:10.1155/2013/696401.
- Ouagoussounon, I; Offenberg, J; Sinzogan, A; Adandonon, A; Kossou, D; Vayssières, JF (2015). "Founding weaver ant queens (Oecophylla longinoda) increase production and nanitic worker size when adopting non-nestmate pupae". SpringerPlus. 4 (6): 6. doi:10.1186/2193-1801-4-6. PMC 4429428. PMID 25995983.
- Hölldobler, Bert; Carlin, Norman F. (1985). "Colony founding, queen dominance and oligogyny in the Australian meat ant Iridomyrmex purpureus". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 18 (1): 45–58. doi:10.1007/BF00299237. ISSN 1432-0762. JSTOR 4599861. S2CID 20847952.
- ^ Planqué, Robert; van den Berg, Jan Bouwe; Franks, Nigel R. (2010). "Recruitment Strategies and Colony Size in Ants". PLOS ONE. 5 (8): e11664. Bibcode:2010PLoSO...511664P. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011664. PMC 2915909. PMID 20694195.
- Wheeler, W. M. (1907). "On certain modified hairs peculiar to the ants of arid regions". Biological Bulletin. 13 (4): 185–202. doi:10.2307/1535694. JSTOR 1535694.
- Corn, M. L. (1980). "Polymorphism and polyethism in the neotropical ant Cephalotes atratus (L.)". Insectes Sociaux. 27 (1): 29–42. doi:10.1007/bf02224519. S2CID 6813618.
- Delabie, Jacques H. C. (2001). "Trophobiosis Between Formicidae and Hemiptera (Sternorrhyncha and Auchenorrhyncha): an Overview" (PDF). Neotropical Entomology. 30 (4): 501–516. doi:10.1590/S1519-566X2001000400001.
External links
- Antkey glossary Archived 2015-08-30 at the Wayback Machine