nigger

Sranan Tongo: nengre

Aukan: nengee

Saramaccan: në́ngë

Probably immediately from French nègre or Spanish and Portuguese negro (“a black African”); ultimately from Latin niger (“black”), thus a doublet of negro and noir. Compare Danish nigger, Swedish neger, German Nigger, Dutch nikker. First use appears c. 1577, in the writings of Edward Hellowes (fl. 1574–1601). The expected Modern English pronunciation would be with /iː/; compare neger. The modern pronunciation with /ɪ/ may be due to influence from the Latin etymon (compare the older Southern US pronunciation of negro with /ɪ/), but compare the dialectal American pronunciations of eagle and eager as /ˈɪɡəl/ and /ˈɪɡɚ/.

чёрный

note: негр m (negr) and негритя́нка f (negritjánka) are neutral terms

حبشی

offensive if intended otherwise 'Male Ethiopian/Abyssian'

حبشن

offensive if intended otherwise 'Female Ethiopian/Abyssinian'

To this group belongs the nigger, or black caterpillar of the turnip, which is often in sufficient numbers to do much mischief.

(now offensive) Any of various dark animals:

(archaic) The larva of the turnip sawfly, an agricultural pest.

Well, it's a big heavy line, and you operate the nigger — capstan it's also called — by steam. You wrap your line around that and keep taking in the slack, and that draws up them things.

(archaic, US) A steam-capstan on some Mississippi river boats, used to haul the boat over bars and snags by a rope fastened to a tree on the bank.


ant

From Middle English ampte, amte, emete, amete, from Old English ǣmete (“ant”), from Proto-West Germanic *āmaitijā (literally “biting-thing, cutter”), from Proto-Germanic *ē- (“off, away”) + *maitaną (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂y- (“to cut”). Cognate with Scots emmot (“ant”), dialectal Dutch emt, empt (“ant”), German Ameise and Emse (“ant”). See also emmet.

inh

The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters […]. But the priciest items in the market aren't the armadillo steaks or even the bluefin tuna. That would be the frozen chicatanas – giant winged ants – at around $500 a kilo.

2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects […] ”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32:

Any of various insects in the family Formicidae in the order Hymenoptera, typically living in large colonies composed almost entirely of flightless females.

хъумпӏэцӏэдж

ꭓʷumpʼɛcʼɛdž


ant

en-verb

ant (third-person singular simple present ants, present participle anting, simple past and past participle anted)

ants (present singular third-person)
anting (participle present)
anted (participle past)
anted (past)

Wild birds tend to ant and sunbathe most frequently during periods of high humidity, particularly right after heavy or prolonged rainfall in summer.

1974, Eloise Potter and Doris Hauser, “Relationship of anting and sunbathing to molting in wild birds”, in The Auk, volume 91, archived from the original on 2011-06-06, page 538:

(ornithology) To rub insects, especially ants, on one's body, perhaps to control parasites or clean feathers.


beeswax

en-noun

beeswax (usually uncountable, plural beeswaxes)

A wax secreted by bees from which they make honeycomb; or, the processed form of this wax used in the manufacture of various goods.

mind your own beeswax
mind your own beeswax#English

none of your beeswax
none of your beeswax#English

(informal, Canada, US, humorous) “Business”, as in such phrases as mind your own beeswax and none of your beeswax.


bee

From Middle English bee, from Old English bēo, from Proto-West Germanic *bijā, from Proto-Germanic *bijō, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰey-.

His face was belymmed as byes had him stounge[…].

1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte:

An angry Wasp th'one in a viall had, / Th'other in hers an hony-laden Bee.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

Can there be a more formall, and better ordered policie, divided into so severall charges and offices, more constantly entertained, and better maintained, than that of Bees?

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

Ariell: / Where the Bee ſucks, there ſuck I, / In a Cowslips bell, I lie, / There I cowch when Owles doe crie, / On the Batts backe I doe flie / after Sommer merrily. / Merrily, merrily, ſhall I liue now / Vnder the bloſſom that hangs on the Bow.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 17:

Bees are the moſt excellent of all Inſects vvhatſoever, and expreſſe both vvorth and vvonder in all their vvaies: […]

1657, Samuel Purchas, “The Excellency of Bees”, in A Theatre of Politicall Flying-Insects. […], London: […] R. I. for Thomas Parkhurst, […], →OCLC, page 1:

He stood across in the other garden, beside a bush of pale Michaelmas daisies, watching the last bees crawl into the hive.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “chapter 12”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

Bees pollinate many of the world’s crops—a service estimated to be worth $15 billion a year in America alone.

2012 March 31, “Subtle poison”, in The Economist:

A flying insect, of the clade Anthophila within the hymenopteran superfamily Apoidea, known for its organised societies (though only a minority have them), for collecting pollen and (in some species) producing wax and honey.

തേനീച്ച (tēnīcca, literally “honey-fly”)

بلۍ مچۍ

balǝ́ymǝčǝ́y


honey-pot ant

From honeypot + ant.
From its large abdomen resembling a pot of honey, which contains a sweet substance used for colony survival.

A type of ant from Australia, known for a class of individuals within the colony which have huge inflated amber-coloured abdomen.


bike

From Middle English bike, byke (“a nest of wild bees or wasps; also, honeycomb”), of unknown origin. Perhaps a back-formation of Middle English *bykere (“beekeeper”), from Old English bēocere (“beekeeper”); or from Old English *bȳc, a byform of Old English būc (“belly; vessel; container”). Compare also Scots byke (“beehive, anthill; home, dwelling”), Old Norse bý (“bee”).

cog

like blue bottle flees in a blink of sunshine, […]A bonny bike there’s o’ them!

1818 July 25, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC:

he stood for a minute talking to them about their job of gathering cones, and telling them a story about a tree he’d once climbed which had a wasp’s byke in it unbeknown to him.

1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 107:

(Scotland, Northern England) A hive of bees, or a nest of wasps, hornets, or ants.


drone

→ Asturian: dron

→ Italian: drone

→ Punjabi: ਡ੍ਰੋਨ (ḍron)

→ Polish: dron

→ Portuguese: drone

→ Spanish: dron

From Middle English drane, from Old English drān, from Proto-West Germanic *drānu, from Proto-Germanic *drēniz, *drēnuz, *drenô (“an insect, drone”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrēn- (“bee, drone, hornet”). Cognate with Danish drone (“drone”), Dutch dar (“male bee or wasp”), German Drohne, dialectal German Dräne, Trehne, Trene (“drone”), Low German drone (“drone”), Swedish drönje, drönare (“drone”).
The etymology of the sense of "remote-controlled aircraft" is disputed; theories include early military UAVs dumbly flying on preset paths.

inh

The Apex boat is a small radio-controlled craft which tows, at an angle, two Drone boats. The latter are small craft filled with explosives to be detonated from the control radio of the Apex boat.

1946, Seventh United States Army in France and Germany, Report of Operations, volume 1, page 73:

Firefish, a drone boat, is the second radio-controlled target used by the detachment. A 17-foot fiber glass craft, it weighs 1700 pounds and operates from the support ship by remote control at a range of up to five miles using tracking radar.

1968 July 13, “Long-Distance Crews”, in All Hands, number 618, page 27:

There, in the heart of a desert target range, operates a fleet of remote-control QM-56 mobile land drones, more familiarly described as modified tanks.

1968 September 13, “Desert Tank Corps”, in All Hands, number 620, page 13:

"Libya obtained a remote controlled explosive boat system consisting of 30-knot drone boats packed with high explosives controlled from a cabin cruiser type craft," Butts told the seapower and strategic and critical materials subcomittee.

1984 March 1, UPI, “Libya owns drone boats, Navy says”, in Eugene Register-Guard, page 2:

(chiefly military) Any remotely-operated vehicle (ROV), especially when multiple such vehicles are operated from a larger vessel.

The van is locally referred to as "a drone" because it is compact and stable under extreme conditions. It is also very fast. Technically though, it is a Toyota Hiace, which is usually used for commercial purposes.

2021 February 4, Alex Mugasha, “Why Uganda's security agencies have fallen in love with the "Drone" van”, in Nile Post:

He has been arrested several times, transported in drone vans and brutalized in various detention facilities.

2021 February 4, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, “Horror inside a kidnap drone”, in The Observer:

The Toyota Hiace is a light commercial van that can be used as a minibus, a taxi, or even an ambulance. But in Uganda, the "drone" has a sinister reputation. Chris Atukwasize, a cartoonist at the Daily Monitor newspaper, dubbed it the #WheelsOfSteal and rendered it as a skull: brake lights dripping blood, its front grille a row of teeth, and hands plastered behind its tinted back windows, pleading for help.

2021 March 3, Liam Taylor, “They came in plainclothes with guns: 'Abducted' by Uganda's army”, in Al Jazeera:

Earlier this week, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa summoned the Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja together with the Ministers of Security and Internal Affairs and parliamentary whips to address the said return of drones on the streets.

2022 October 2, Sam Waswa, “UPDF Probes Drone Raid at Journalist's Home”, in Chimp Reports:

A minibus van, often numberless and dubbed the 'drone', gained notoriety for kidnaps and disappearances.

2022 October 20, Albert K Awedoba, Andreas Mehler, Benedikt Kamski, David Sebudubudu, Africa Yearbook, volume 18, →ISBN, page 419:

(Uganda) A Toyota HiAce or a similar van, especially one used by Ugandan state agents to kidnap opposition members.

The billionaire-friendly media drones and frenzied multiculturalist politicians are imposing "vibrant" third world social violence onto Australians, and Australians don't get to vote against this "bipartisan" conspiracy. The hyperactive globalist politicians and media drones might find themselves facing firing squads if they don't change their corrupt ways.

2009 December 18, Benway (original non-Zionist), “Shocking Jewish faggot property pimp attack on Australia”, in aus.politics (Usenet):

Instead, you got into lockstep with all the other hive-mind libtard drones and voted for the slimy corrupt scumbag bitch who was under *two* active Congressional investigations (a first in history, BTW), Hitlery Clinton.

2017 January 19, The Party Of Trump (The Party For Winners), “Re: Clinton Cash”, in alt.checkmate (Usenet):

non-player character
non-player character

(slang, derogatory) One who lacks the ability to think critically and independently, especially one who follows a group blindly; a non-player character.


propolis

From Latin propolis, from Hellenistic Ancient Greek πρόπολις (própolis, “suburb; propolis”) (apparently because the material was used by bees to extend their hives), from Ancient Greek προ- (pro-, “pro-”) + πόλις (pólis, “city”).

uder

An aromatic glue-like substance produced by honeybees from tree resin, waxes, and their own secretions, used in the construction of their hives.


bull ant

Occasionally I would see their innards revealed by a gang of men in Jackie Howes with jack-hammers and chinking mattocks picked^([sic]) the sleepers clean of ballast like bull ants cleaning up a fish′s frame.

2010, Roger K. A. Allen, Ballina Boy: A Child's Odyssey through the 1950s, page 194:

Myrmecia brevinoda
Myrmecia brevinoda#Translingual


army ant

A tropical nomadic ant, principally in the subfamiles Dorylinae and Leptanillinae, that preys on other insects.


wasp

Sranan Tongo: waswasi (reduplicated)

From Middle English wasp, waspe, waps, from Old English wæsp, wæps (“wasp”), from Proto-West Germanic *wapsu, from Proto-Germanic *wapsō, from Proto-Indo-European *wóps-eh₂ (“wasp”), from *webʰ- (“weave”) (referring to the insect's woven nests).
Compare Dutch wesp, German Wespe, Danish hveps. Metathesis of s and p was both a process of some generality within English (compare e.g. grasp from Middle English grapsen, and—affecting other plosives—ascian ~ acsian (“to ask”)) and common in the reflexes of *wóps-eh₂ (“wasp”) in particular, as the aforementioned Germanic cognates (and non-Germanic cognates like Latin vespa) evince.

sand wasp

genus Ammophila spp., in family Sphecidae, or tribe Bembicini, in family Crabronidae

en:any stinging flying insect resembling a hornet

Any of many types of stinging flying insect resembling a hornet.

en:any insect of suborder Apocrita except an ant

(entomology) Any of the members of suborder Apocrita, excepting the ants (family Formicidae) and bees (clade Anthophila).

Any of the members of the family Vespidae.

en:person who behaves angrily or insolently

A person who behaves in an angry or insolent way, hence waspishly.


wasp

Alternative letter-case form of WASP (“white Anglo-Saxon Protestant”)


vespine

en-adj

vespine (comparative more vespine, superlative most vespine)

more vespine (comparative)
most vespine (superlative)

Ori braced himself, dropped with a cry when a ghost image of the wasp returned in air again momentarily varicose, and went, and came back once more, now nothing but a vespine insinuation, and was, finally, all gone.

Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of wasps.


bumblebee

1520s from bumble + bee, replacing Middle English humbul-be. Merged with Middle English bombeln (“to boom, buzz”), in the late 14th century.

der

Any of several species of large bee in the genus Bombus.

ผึ้งมีขนตัวใหญ่ที่ส่งเสียงหึ่งๆ

pêung mee kŏn dtua yài tĕe sòng sĭang hèung-hèung


apian

en-adj

apian (comparative more apian, superlative most apian)

more apian (comparative)
most apian (superlative)

19th century, from Latin apiānus, from apis (“bee”).

In fact, apian, formican, vespal, and termital government is not a monarchy, but a pure democracy. The queens of ants, bees, wasps, and termites wear the crown of maternity — no other.

1904, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 108, page 559:


bumble

* Verb: Frequentative of boom and/or bum, equivalent to bum + -le.
* Noun: From the verb.

(UK, Ireland, dialect) The Eurasian bittern.


dauber

From Middle English daubere, equivalent to daub + -er.


formic

Formed from the root of Latin formīca (“ant”) + -ic.


mire

From Middle English mire, from Old English *mȳre, *mīere, from Proto-West Germanic *miurijā, from Proto-Germanic *miurijǭ (“ant”). Cognate to Old Norse maurr, Danish myre, Middle Dutch miere (“ant”) (Dutch mier). All probably from Proto-Indo-European *morwi- (“ant”), whence also cognate to Latin formīca.

"Having been seriously interrupted by small brown ants or mires working in my cutting bench, digging holes down the side of my cuttings, thereby arresting the process of rooting. […]"

1866, The Gardener's Monthly and Horticultural Advertiser Devoted, page 149:

Wen I lay down behine dat log I plunk masef right een one dem aunty mire nest an bout 10 million of dem leetle devil begin to heat me.

1915, Daniel T. Trombley, Batiste of Isle La Motte, page 24:

The ant figures in the Bestiary, which tells us that the 'mire' is mighty; toils much in summer and in soft weather; stores wood and seed, corn and grass; in winter she is not harmed: she likes wheat, but shuns barley […]

1939, original c. 1300, Publications - Volume 103; Volume 105, page 267:


hive

From Middle English hyve, from Old English hȳf, from Proto-West Germanic *hūfi, from Proto-Indo-European *kuHp- (“water vessel”), from *kew- (“to bend, curve”).
See also Dutch huif (“beehive”), Danish dialect huv (“ship’s hull”); also Latin cūpa (“tub, vat”), Ancient Greek κύπη (kúpē, “gap, hole”), κύπελλον (kúpellon, “beaker”), Sanskrit कूप (kū́pa, “cave”). Doublet of coupe, cup, and keeve. The computing term was chosen as an in-joke relating to bees; see https://web.archive.org/web/20150715222122/http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/08/08/54618.aspx.

der

First, for thy Bees a quiet Station find, / And lodge 'em under Covert of the Wind: / For Winds, when homeward they return, will drive / The loaded Carriers from their Ev'ning Hive.

1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, lines 10–13:

A structure, whether artificial or natural, for housing a swarm of honeybees.

When that the general is not like the hive, to whom the foragers shall all repair, what honey is expected?

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

Windows builds the registry from the five registry hives[…]

2006, Jean Andrews, Fixing Windows XP, page 352:

For devices built with hive-based registry implementation, the registry data are broken into three different hives — the boot hive, system hive, and user hive.

2011, Samuel Phung, Professional Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0:

(computing, Microsoft Windows) A section of the registry.


hive

en-verb

hive (third-person singular simple present hives, present participle hiving, simple past and past participle hived)

hives (present singular third-person)
hiving (participle present)
hived (participle past)
hived (past)

to hive a swarm of bees

(transitive) To collect (bees) into a hive.

Hiving wisdom with each studious year.

1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: Printed for John Murray, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):

(transitive) To store (something other than bees) in, or as if in, a hive.

(entomology) Of insects: to enter or possess a hive.


ichneumon

From Latin ichneumōn, from Ancient Greek ἰχνεύμων (ikhneúmōn, “tracker”), from ἴχνος (íkhnos, “track, footstep”).

der

Ada's unique Lorelei Underwing had died, paralyzed by some ichneumon that had not been deceived by those clever prominences and fungoid smudges.

1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 43:


carpenter

From Middle English carpenter, from Anglo-Norman carpenter (compare Old French charpentier), from Late Latin carpentārius (“a carpenter”), from Latin carpentārius (“a wagon-maker, carriage-maker”), from Latin carpentum (“a two-wheeled carriage, coach, or chariot, a cart”), from Gaulish carbantos, from Proto-Celtic *karbantos (“chariot, war chariot”), probably related to Proto-Celtic *karros (“wagon”). Doublet of carpintero. More at car.
Displaced native Old English trēowwyrhta (literally “tree worker”).

ncog

A person skilled at carpentry, the trade of cutting and joining timber in order to construct buildings or other structures.


hornet

From Middle English hernet, from Old English hyrnetu, hyrnete, from Proto-West Germanic *hurnutu, from Proto-Germanic *hurznutō (compare German Hornisse), alteration of Proto-Germanic *hursulǭ (compare Dutch horzel), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥h₂sro- (“hornet”, literally “the one with horns (antennae)”), from *ḱerh₂- (“horn”) (compare Welsh creyryn (“gadfly”), Latin crābrō (“hornet”), Lithuanian širšė (“wasp”), Old Church Slavonic сръшень (srŭšenĭ, “hornet”), Albanian grerë, grenzë (“wasp, hornet”)).

cog

A large wasp, of the genus Vespa, having a brown-and-yellow-striped body and the ability to inflict a serious sting.

greth

a large wasp, of the genus Vespa, with a brown-and-yellow-striped body


pissant

From piss + ant, because of the urine-like smell of anthills. Compare pismire.


emmet

From Middle English emete, from Old English ǣmete, (bef. 12c) Doublet of ant.

He told him that he saw a vast multitude and a promiscuous, their habitations like molehills, the men as emmets […]

1666, Dr. Edmund King, Philosophical Transactions (1665-1678) Observations Concerning Emmets or Ants, Their Eggs, Production, Progress, Coming to Maturity, Use, &c

What shall a Mote up to a Monarch rise?
An Emmet match an Emperor in might?

before 1729, Edward Taylor, "Meditation. Joh. 14.2. I go to prepare a place for you"

Once a dream did weave a shade / O'er my angel-guarded bed / That an emmet lost its way / Where on grass methought I lay.

1789, William Blake, “A Dream”, in Songs of Innocence:

[A benignity that] to the emmet gives / Her foresight, and intelligence that makes / The tiny creatures strong by social league.

1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, IV.430:

We are scurrying emmets or pismires with our sad little comedies.

1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford:


black jack

en-noun

black jack (countable and uncountable, plural black jacks)


red ant

Myrmica rubra
Myrmica rubra#Translingual

An ant of the genus Myrmica, especially the European red ant or common red ant (Myrmica rubra).

(US) The pharaoh ant (Monomorium pharaonis).

Any of various red-coloured ants.
The pharaoh ant (Monomorium pharaonis).

Breakfast was the white heart of a sand palm – succulent and bitter-sweet – and for ‘jam’ we ate bush apples and red ants with green bottoms that were so full of vitamin C they tasted like stings.

2002, Victoria Finlay, Colour, Sceptre, page 51:

(Australia) The meat ant (Iridomyrmex purpureus), endemic to Australia.

The red harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus), native to southwestern US.

red imported fire ant
red imported fire ant

The red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta), native to South America, but broadly invasive.

The European red wood ant (Formica polyctena or Formica pratensis).

Any of various red-coloured ants.
The red bull ant (Myrmecia gulosa).


jasper

jasper (countable and uncountable, plural jaspers)

From Middle English jasper, jaspre, from Old French jaspre, a variant of jaspe (modern French jaspe), from Latin iaspis, from Ancient Greek ἴασπις (íaspis).

(obsolete) Any bright-coloured kind of chalcedony apart from cornelian.

An opaque, impure variety of quartz, of red, yellow, and other dull colors, breaking conchoidally with a smooth surface.


jasper

(UK, West Country, Somerset, colloquial) A wasp.

And list'nin to some big out-a-town jasper / Hearin' him tell about horse-race gamblin' / Not a wholesome trottin' race, no!

1957, Meredith Willson, “Ya Got Trouble”, in The Music Man:

"I stood there through almost an hour of it before they called Rooster Cogburn to the stand. I had guessed wrong as to which one he was, picking out a younger and slighter man with a badge on his shirt. And I was surprised when an old one-eyed jasper that was built along the lines of Grover Cleveland went up and was sworn."

1968, Charles Portis, “True Grit”, in The Saturday Evening Post:

Standing on the corner like a just-got-in-town jasper

1975, “Nighthawk Postcards (From Easy Street)”, in Nighthawks at the Diner, performed by Tom Waits:

“That jasper,” sniggered Darby, “never pulled out his ‘dummy’ for nothing but pissing, I bet you!”

2006, Thomas Pynchon, “The Light over the Ranges”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 110:

(US, slang) A person, a guy, especially seen as naïve or simple.


scopa

From Vulgar Latin scōpa (“broom”) (Latin scōpae (“twigs, broom”) ). Compare Spanish escoba (“broom”).

Any of various clusters of hair of non-parasitic bees that serve to carry pollen. In parasitic Hymenoptera it refers to a local patch of hairs, regardless of function.


apiology

The scientific study of bees and honey-making.


bluebottle

* blue + bottle From resemblance to shiny colored-glass bottles.
* (police officer): From the colour of the uniform.

Batemans Bay, New South Wales
bluebottle

A blue ant, Diamma bicolor, a parasitic wasp native to Australia.


sawfly

Any of various flying insects of the suborder Symphyta, within the order Hymenoptera, whose ovipositor is long and often serrated and is used to cut into plants to lay eggs.


honey bee

Any of seven species of bee, in genus Apis, often kept commercially for honey, beeswax, and pollination of crops.


carpenter ant

Any of several large ants, of the genus Camponotus, found in North America and northern China, that build nests in dead wood.


myrmecophile

Ants are integral components of terrestrial ecosystems, owing to their manifold interactions with other organisms. They serve as seed dispersers for plants (myrmecochory), mutualists with sap-sucking insects (trophobionts), and hosts for a wide range of associate organisms (myrmecophiles) and act as both predator and prey.

2022 September 19, Schultheiss et al., “The abundance, biomass, and distribution of ants on Earth”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, page 1, column 1:

An organism, especially an insect, that lives in close association with or shares a nest with a species of ant.

muurahaisvieras

organism that lives in close association with ants


bourdon

Inherited from Middle English burdoun (“accompaniment”), from Old French bordon, from Medieval Latin burdō, burdōnem (“drone”). The modern pronunciation is influenced by modern French bourdon.

der

A large, low-pitched bell not part of a diatonically tuned ring of bells.


myrmecology

/ˌmɜː(ɹ)mɪˈkɒləd͡ʒi/

From Ancient Greek myrmeco- (“ant”) + -logy (“study (of)”).


pharaoh ant

It probably received the scientific name of "Pharaoh's ant" on account of a defective knowledge of Scripture on the part of its describer, who doubtless imagined that ants formed one of the plagues of Egypt in the time of Pharaoh, whereas the only entomological plagues mentioned were lice, flies and locusts.

1889 May 25, “The Little Red Ant”, in Good Housekeeping, volume 9, number 2, page 26:

The pharaoh ant, Monomorium pharaonis, is one of the most persistent and pestiferous ants to invade the sanctity of hearth and home.

1989, May Berenbaum, Ninety-nine Gnats, Nits, and Nibblers, page 19:

Because the pharaoh ant eats a variety of items (it is an omnivore), it can survive on just about any crumb it finds.

2013, Beatrix Beisner, Nature All Around Us: A Guide to Urban Ecology, page 39:

A small yellow-brown ant, Monomorium pharaonis, introduced to virtually every area of the world, considered to be a major indoor pest.


dumbledore

Compound of dumble (similar to bumble) + dor (“a buzzing flying insect”).

compound

“Miserable dumbledores!” / “Right, William, and so they be—miserable dumbledores!” said the choir with unanimity.

1872, [Thomas Hardy], chapter 4, in Under the Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Tinsley Brothers, →OCLC, (please specify |part=I to V):


pismire

From Middle English pissemyre, equivalent to piss + mire (“ant”). So called due to the smell of anthills. Compare English pissant, Old Frisian pisimme, Dutch pismiere, Swedish pissmyra.

Why looke you, I am whipt and ſcourg'd with rods,
 Netled, and ſtung with piſmires, when I heare
 Of this vile polititian, Bullingbrooke,

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

Much there is not of wonder in the confused Houses of Pismires, though much in their busie life and actions […]

1658, Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, Folio Society, published 2007, page 189:

What are we in the great scale of events, we poor defenceless frontier inhabitants? What is it to the gazing world, whether we breathe or whether we die? Whatever virtue, whatever merit and disinterestedness we may exhibit in our secluded retreats, of what avail? We are like the pismires destroyed by the plough; whose destruction prevents not the future crop.

1782, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, Letters from an American Farmer:


bullet ant

From bullet + ant.
From being an ant having a poisonous stinging bite, whose pain is described to be comparable to being hit by a bullet.

(entomology, informal) A stinging ant (Paraponera clavata) the toxin of which causes intense pain for about a day, native to Central and South America.


queen bee

From queen + bee. Compare Middle English kyng of been (“queen bee”, literally “king of bees”).

noncog

It is generally believed that the queen bee mates only once in her lifetime.

1947, AI Root, The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture, Kessinger, published 2005, page 205:

A reproductive female (especially the only one) in a colony of bees.


nuc

I have to take brood from established hives to set up nucs, as I did the previous week[…]

1998, Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees: And How to Keep Them, page 110:

(beekeeping) A nucleus colony; a small bee colony created from a larger colony.


ichneumon wasp

A member of family Ichneumonidae of parasitic wasps whose larvae feed on other live insect larvae.


anthill

From Middle English ametehul, amptehille, from Old English ǣmethyll, equivalent to ant + hill.

Coordinate term: anthole

On arrival at Edinburgh Waverley, I fight my way through the throngs of tourists and locals turning the place into a human anthill.

2024 November 27, Paul Bigland, “Around the UK on nearly 80 trains...”, in RAIL, number 1023, page 48:

A cone-shaped structure built from sediment and other available materials by ants or white ants (termites), and beneath which the colony nests.


sphexide

Any wasp of the genus Sphex; the digger wasp


digger wasp

Any of several solitary, predatory wasps, of the families Sphecidae or Crabronidae, that nest in the soil.

graafwesp

any of several solitary, predatory wasps


sphexish

en-adj

sphexish (comparative more sphexish, superlative most sphexish)

more sphexish (comparative)
most sphexish (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-sphexish.wav

From sphex (“sand wasp of Sphex or an allied genus”) + -ish (suffix meaning ‘being like, similar to, typical of’), coined by the American scientist and scholar of comparative literature Douglas Hofstadter (born 1945) in a September 1982 “Metamagical Themas” column in Scientific American, after a study of the behaviour of sphexide wasps. Sphex is derived from Ancient Greek σφήξ (sphḗx, “wasp”), either from Proto-Indo-European *bʰey- (“bee”) or a Pre-Greek word.

coinage

Is this the top of the pinnacle then? Or is it just the top of our pinnacle, the point at which we reveal our sphexish streak and flounder about foolishly in the face of higher thought?

1984, Daniel C[lement] Dennett, “Making Reason Practical”, in Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting (A Bradford Book), Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, published 1997, →ISBN, page 46:

[A] sphexish creature in unusual circumstances may seem to be under the control of a malevolent puppet-master. A reliable sign that behaviour is sphexish is that the creature persists with it in circumstances that render it futile, rather as my first electronic typewriter would go on furiously hammering away with its daisy-wheel after the paper supply had run out.

1999, John [William Nevill] Watkins, “Genes, Brains, and Creativity”, in Human Freedom after Darwin: A Critical Rationalist View, Chicago, LaSalle, Ill.: Open Court Publishing Company, →ISBN, part 1 (Naturalism), § 5.1 (Genes and Behaviour), page 120:

Dual-process models of cognition […] all propose, in one way or another, that in fact we all are a little bit sphexish. In fact, many of these theories, in emphasizing the pervasiveness of TASS [The Autonomous Set of Systems] and the rarity and difficulty of analytic processing, are in effect proposing that our default mode of processing is sphexish.

2004, Keith E. Stanovich, “A Brain at War with Itself”, in The Robot’s Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin, Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 75:

What makes you any different from the digger wasp? Aren't you the least bit sphexish? You might argue (and probably will!) that we're far more complex than poor Sphex, and don't engage in the same repetitive actions that she does. […] Yet human beings are infinitely variable in their behavior, we don't all do the same thing in the same circumstances. Maybe it is hard to say exactly why we're not sphexish, but surely we're not. Regrettably, this rejection of sphexishness is not that great an argument.

2013, Stephen D. Hales, “Freedom”, in This is Philosophy: An Introduction, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, →ISBN, paragraph 4.23, page 125:

(philosophy) Of animal behaviour: deterministic, preprogrammed.


oak apple

[T]he small Apples which I have often observ'd to grow on the leaves of an Oak call'd Oak-apples […] are nothing but the Matrices of an Insect, as I elsewhere show.

1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XXV:

A spherical type of oak gall, produced by an oak gall wasp (tribe Cynipini).


oak gall

A gall produced by an oak by a wasp larva.


fire ant

vuurmier

any of several red or yellow ants that can inflict a harsh sting

Any of several red or yellow ants that can inflict a harsh sting.

Oecophylla spp. (weaver ants), of Southeast Asia


media wasp

A large European wasp, Dolichovespula media, that became established in Britain in the 1980s


polylectic

en-adj

polylectic (comparative more polylectic, superlative most polylectic)

more polylectic (comparative)
most polylectic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek πολύς (polús, “a lot of, much”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *polh₁ús (“many, much”), from the root *pleh₁- (“to fill”)) + λέγειν (légein), from λέγω (légō, “to arrange, choose, gather; to count, reckon”) (from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather”)) + -ic.

der

A polylectic term is a multi-word term, as opposed to a monolectic term which is a one-word term.

(grammar) Of or relating to a term consisting of more than one word.


grist

en-noun

grist (countable and uncountable, plural grists)

From Middle English grist, gryst, from Old English grist, gyrst (“the action of grinding, corn for grinding, gnashing”), of obscure origin: possibly from a pre-Germanic substrate language, or from a derivative of Proto-Germanic *gredaną (“to crunch”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to rub, grind”). Cognate with Old Saxon gristgrimmo (“gnashing of the teeth”), German Griesgram (“a grumbler, a grouch, peevishness, misery”), Old English gristel (“gristle”).


apimania

Cesi's Lincean bees made a spectacular impression and contributed greatly to the apimania that gripped the Rome of Urban VIII.

Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome (volume 40, page 216)


colony collapse disorder

As many as a quarter of the nation's commercially kept bees went missing last year, presumed dead, in a phenomenon now called colony collapse disorder.

2007 May 12, “Mysterious Honeybee Deaths”, in Houston Chronicle:

Interaction among multiple pathogens and parasites is the proposed cause for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a syndrome characterized by worker bees abandoning the hive. Here we provide the first documentation that the phorid fly Apocephalus borealis, previously known to parasitize bumble bees, also infects and eventually kills honey bees and may pose an emerging threat to North American apiculture.

2012 January 3, Andrew Core, Charles Runckel, Jonathan Ivers, Christopher Quock, Travis Siapno, Seraphina DeNault, Brian Brown, Joseph DeRisi, Christopher D. Smith, John Hafernik, “A New Threat to Honey Bees, the Parasitic Phorid Fly Apocephalus borealis”, in PLOS, →DOI:

A mysterious and widespread phenomenon of the sudden disappearance of colonies of bees.


leaf-cutter ant

en-noun

leaf-cutter ant (plural leaf-cutter ants)

Any of the 41 species of ants in the genera Atta and Acromyrmex, that cut fragments from leaves and takes them to its colony's nest.


leaf-cutter bee

leaf-cutter bee (plural leaf-cutter bees)

A bee of the family Megachilidae that cuts fragments from leaves and uses them to build its nest.


leaf-cutting bee

leaf-cutting bee (plural leaf-cutting bees)

A leaf-cutter bee, of the family Megachilidae.


worker bee

Then, a worker bee has got six thousand eyes of each side of its head so it can see the flowers that it wants to get the pollen and the nectar from.

1991, Gene Stratton-Porter, The Keeper of the Bees, reprint edition, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 197:

A sterile bee whose specialty is to support the hive, especially by collecting pollen.


vespid

Any social insect of the family Vespidae including wasps and hornets


myrmomancy

From Ancient Greek μύρμηξ (múrmēx, “ants”) + -mancy.

af

Divination by interpreting the appearance and behaviour of ants, especially their eating habits. A type of augury.


bee candy

Connected with one corner of the cage is a small tube several inches in length which in caging a queen for introduction, is filled with bee candy.

1909, Ralph Benton, A Comprehensive System for the Queen Breeder, page 126:

This is bee-candy," he explained, "winter food for the hives. We make a lot of it and send it all over the country. But it's ticklish work.

a. 1921 [3rd ed.], Tickner Edwardes, The Bee-Master of Warrilow [Kessinger reprint](2006), page 61

The hive was provisioned with bee candy, water, 2 frames of honey, and 1 frame of pollen mixed with dextrose.

1990, Gordon L. Shaw, James L. McGaugh, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, page 428:

A manufactured food for bees, used by bee-keepers


humblebee

From Middle English humbul-be, humbulbe, hombul-be, from *humbul (“bumblebee”) + be (“bee”).
See also West Frisian hommel (“bumblebee”), Dutch hommel (“bumblebee”), German Low German Hummel (“bumblebee”), German Hummel (“bumblebee”), Swedish humla (“bumblebee”), Norwegian humle (“bumblebee”); also cognate with Dutch hommelbij (“bumblebee”), Danish humlebi (“bumblebee”). Compare also English humble (“to hum”).

The Fox, the Ape, and the Humble-Bee,
Were ſtill at oddes being but three.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], signature [C4], verso, lines 85–86:

1800's, Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Humblebee
Burly, dozing humblebee,
Where thou art is clime for me.

Hence I have very little doubt, that if the whole genus of humble-bees became extinct or very rare in England, the heartsease and red clover would become very rare, or wholly disappear.

1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Struggle for Existence”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, pages 73–74:


myrmecophyte

/məːˈmɛkəfʌɪt/

From German Myrmekophyt, equivalent to myrmeco- (“ant”) + -phyte (“plant”).

A plant that lives in association with a colony of ants. The degree of association varies and is assumed to be symbiotic in some cases.


piss ant

A wood ant (from the smell of its nest), or an ant belonging to one of various other minor species.


chalcid

From New Latin genus name Chalcis, from Ancient Greek Χαλκίς, from χαλκός ("copper", "bronze"), because wasps of that genus have metallic colors on their exoskeletons.

Any of many small wasps of the superfamily Chalcidoidea, most of which are parasitoids of other insects.


chalcidology

The major milestone in Nearctic chalcidology during the latter half of the 20th century is perhaps the catalog by Peck

1997 — Gibson et al. Annotated Keys to the Genera of Nearctic Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera) (NRC Research Press)

The publication of this CD-ROM catalogue marks an important step in the history of chalcidology.

1999 — Systematic Entomolgy (1999) 24, 301-304

This paper is dedicated to the doyen of chalcidology, Zdenek Bouček, in the year of his 81st birthday.

2005, Simon van Noort, Jean-Yves Rasplus, Revision of the Papua New Guinean fig wasp genus Robertsia Bouček (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Pteromalidae: Sycoecinae):


vespiary

From Latin vespa (“wasp”), formed in imitation of apiary (a similar structure for bees).

A colony of wasps living in such a nest.


formivore

an organism that eats or consumes ants, such as an anteater


monogyny

en-noun

monogyny (usually uncountable, plural monogynies)

/məˈnɒd͡ʒɪnɪ/

The condition in ants of having only one queen at a time.


mining bee

Any of very many species of bee, of the genus Andrena, that nest in burrows.


myrmecophobia

Ants are a special kind of bug. I think they are easily squashed by the foot; I'm sure I've unintentionally squashed a number of them with my feet in my adult life, and when I was a young child I believe I used to squash an occasional ant either for sport or more likely as a reaction to some feeling of myrmecophobia.

2001 January 30, R Fontana, “Re: nat”, in alt.usage.english (Usenet):

Possibly it was fear of ants, which by the way, is myrmecophobia.

2007, Claire Cook, Life's a Beach, Hyperion, →ISBN, page 134:

My wife suffers from myrmecophobia. I've spread enough toxic substances to turn our property into a superfund site.

2011 July 9, Max, “Re: Reviews On Roadtrek Motorhomes?”, in rec.outdoors.rv-travel (Usenet):


dulosis

From Ancient Greek δοῦλος (doûlos, “servant, slave, thrall”) + -osis.

der

(entomology) process by which parasitic ants steal pupae from the nests of other ants and raise them in their own nest, so that they become part of the colony and perform tasks in it.


corbicula

A learned borrowing from Latin corbicula, diminutive of corbis, a basket. Doublet of corbeil.

(entomology) A bee's pollen basket; in honeybees and close relatives, the corbiculae are located on the outer (lateral) surface of the hind tibia.


yellow jacket

From yellow + jacket.
* (pentobarbital sodium): Named after the yellow capsule of the Nembutal brand.

Police and hundreds of so-called “yellow jackets” protesting against high taxes and living costs have clashed in Brussels as the movement that started in France two weeks ago gained traction in Belgium.

2018 November 30, “Belgian police and ‘yellow jacket’ protesters clash in Brussels”, in Independent.ie:

If you’re seeking the cause of the Dutch agriculture and fisheries protests, the Canadian trucker convoy, the yellow-jackets in France, the farmer rebellion in India a few years ago, the recent catastrophic collapse of Sri Lanka, or the energy crisis in Europe and Australia, you can instruct yourself by the recent pronouncements from Deloitte.

2022 August 15, Jordan Peterson, “Peddlers of environmental doom have shown their true totalitarian colours”, in The Telegraph:

Synonym of yellow vest (“member of a French protest movement which started in late 2018”).


acidopore

(zoology, rare) A conical structure with a small terminal opening, at the posterior end of an ant’s gaster through which it sprays formic acid and associated hydrocarbons, collectively comprising the venom. This structure is unique to, but characteristic of all members of the ant subfamily Formicinae.


formican

In fact, apian, formican, vespal, and termital government is not a monarchy, but a pure democracy. The queens of ants, bees, wasps, and termites wear the crown of maternity — no other.

1904, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 108, page 559:


formicarium

en-noun

formicarium (plural formicaria or formicariums)

formicaria (plural)
formicariums (plural)

It is on the outskirts of the forest, or around clearings, or near wide roads that let in the sun, that these formicariums are generally found.

1874, Thomas Belt, The Naturalist in Nicaragua: A Narrative of a Residence at the Gold Mines of Chontales; Journeys in the Savannahs and Forests. […], London: John Murray, […], page 73:

A vivarium used for the study of ants and ant colonies.


formicary

An ant colony, a pile of earth built by ants in which they nest.


ants in one's pants

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-ants in one's pants.wav

(slang) The condition of being sexually excited.


gall wasp

Any insect of the family Cynipidae, whose larvae damage plants, particularly oak trees, creating galls.


hymenopteran

From translingual Hymenoptera + -an, from neuter plural of Ancient Greek ὑμενόπτερος (humenópteros, “membrane-winged”), from ὑμήν (humḗn, “thin skin, membrane”) + πτερόν (pterón, “feather, wing”) + -ος (-os, adjectival suffix).

af

(entomology) Relating to or denoting hymenopterans.


dolichoderine

en-adj

dolichoderine (comparative more dolichoderine, superlative most dolichoderine)

more dolichoderine (comparative)
most dolichoderine (superlative)


killer bee

From killer + bee, for its aggressive nature, though few deaths have been reported.


melittin

en-noun

melittin (countable and uncountable, plural melittins)

Borrowed from German Melittin, from Attic Greek μέλιττα (mélitta, “bee”) + -in, from German -in.

af

If enough bees sting an animal, the cardiotoxin component of melittin will work to arrest its heart.

2016 August 18, Avi Steinberg, “The Connoisseur of Pain”, in The New York Times Magazine:

(biochemistry) A peptide, containing 26 amino acids, which is present in bee venom and has been used experimentally as an antibacterial agent, especially against penicillin-resistant bacteria.


melissopalynology

There are many reasons why the results from melissopalynology may not be showing the nectar sources correctly. Molan (1998) reported that melissopalynology is valid only for the determination of the geographical origin of honey, while it is less valid for determining its botanical origin […]

2013, Laïd Boukraâ, Honey in Traditional and Modern Medicine, page 68:

The study of pollen from bees and in their honey


macrergate

(entomology) An unusually large worker ant.


micrergate

(entomology) An unusually small worker ant.


xylocopine

Wilson thinks today's eusocial species likely had ancestors similar to a Japanese stem-nesting xylocopine bee, Ceratina flavipes. Most of the time females make do on their own, but every once in a while, they pair up and divide the labor, setting the stage for a "group" to outdo individuals and for the tendency to form groups to be favored.

2009 February 6, Elizabeth Pennisi, “EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY: Agreeing to Disagree”, in Science, volume 323, number 5915, →DOI, pages 706–708:

(bees) In the subfamily Xylocopinae of carpenter bees.


varroa

These bees are resistant to varroa.

Swarms were reasonably common place in rural areas when New Zealand had a large feral bee population but few wild bees now survive due to varroa disease.

2009 January 29, Don Farmer, “Shop forced to shut as bees swarm”, in Wairarapa Times-Age:

(beekeeping, chiefly New Zealand) Infestation with the mite Varroa destructor, or the disease caused by such mites.

varroatosis

condition of infestation of a colony by Varroa mites


braconid

Other studies have identified potential examples (7), and, because D. alloeum is just one member of a guild of parasitic braconids attacking R. pomonella, it is possible that sympatric host races of Diachasmimorpha mellea and Utetes canaliculatus wasps are also associated with R. pomonella.

2009 February 6, Andrew A. Forbes et al., “Sequential Sympatric Speciation Across Trophic Levels”, in Science, volume 323, number 5915, →DOI, pages 776–779:

2015 Setember 26, Wasp uses virus to make GM butterfly, New Scientist, Issue 3040, page 14,
There are now thousands of species of braconid wasp, each of which lays eggs in a specific butterfly or moth species and produces a unique bracovirus.

Any of the parasitic wasps of the family Braconidae.


ichneumonid

Any wasp of the superfamily Ichneumonoidea


microgastroid

Any of the subfamily Microgastrinae of wasps.


waggle dance

Honeybees, with their intricate social behaviour and waggle dance, have long been considered smarter than the average bug.

2006 May 27, NewScientist, page 8, column 1:

A dance in the form of a figure eight performed by the honey bee in order to communicate the direction and distance of patches of flowers, water sources, etc. that are more than 100 metres distant from the hive.


marabunta

From the 1954 movie The Naked Jungle, perhaps directly from the other etymology, or from a parallel South American source, though this would apparently have been the first time it was applied to ants.

A kind of army ant said to devour every living thing in its path


marabunta

Uncertain. Perhaps ultimately from Kimbundu marimbondo, plural of rimbondo (“Sceliphron spirifex, a bright yellow and black wasp”), possibly via Portuguese marimbondo. Compare Sranan Tongo marbonsu (“wasp of the genus Polistes”).

cog

GE Bodkin (1918) “Notes on some British Guiana Hymenoptera exclusive of the Formicidae”, in Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London, volume 1917, Vol. 65: “The local name is marabunta. Destroying marabunta nests with a wad of dried palm leaves attached to a long pole soaked in kerosene and ignited is an interesting operation for an onlooker at a respectful distance”

Any of several large wasps known for their painful stings:

In and out he flies, bringing each time a tiny daub of mud, the building material of his choice. Before however, he has quite finished his dome or sealed it up he introduces a slender green worm, or more, to serve, it would seem, as larder for the children when they become conscious of their blissful existence and when they feel the pangs of hunger! This species of marabunta is often called the mason bee or fly, on account of its building powers or propensities.

Ignatius Scoles (1885) Sketches of African and Indian Life in British Guiana

(Caribbean) Polybia occidentalis and other species


spider wasp

Any of the solitary wasps in the Pompilidae family, which feed on spiders; a pompilid.

jáád neishoodí naʼashjéʼii haalzheehígíí


mason wasp

Crabbe continued to lie, eyes slowly following the questing flight of a mason-wasp, flat on his back, hands folded.

1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 383:


potter wasp

A wasp of a group in the subfamily Eumeninae of family Vespidae.


eumenine

Of, or pertaining to, the potter wasps of the subfamily Eumeninae.


myrmeco-

From Ancient Greek μύρμηκος (múrmēkos, “ant’s”), genitive of μύρμηξ (múrmēx, “ant”). Doublet of the obsolete term mire.


mason bee

Any of the bees of the genus Osmia, which have the habit of making compartments of mud in their nests.


sacbrood

A viral disease in honey bees which affects the larvae, causing them to shrivel up and become scalelike.

Diseases of the honey bee#Sacbrood virus (SBV)


elaiosome

Ancient Greek ἔλαιον (élaion, “olive oil”) + σῶμα (sôma, “body”).

Ants collect the diaspores for the edible elaiosome, carry them to their nests and consume the elaiosomes. Sometimes, the elaiosome content is sucked from the diaspores, or the elaiosome is loosened on the way to the nest.

1999, Karen van Rheede van Oudtshoorn, Margaretha W. van Rooyen, Dispersal Biology of Desert Plants, Springer, page 17:

Experiments with removal of C.^([Corydalis]) cava seeds with elaiosomes ablated, and with paper balls, infiltrated with juices of seed bodies and elaiosomes, showed the crucial role of elaiosome content in the ant attraction.

2003, Elena Gorb, Stanislav S. N. Gorb, “Seed Dispersal by Ants in a Deciduous Forest Ecosystem: Mechanisms, Strategies, Adaptations”, in Publications, Kluwer Academic, page 44:

Elaiosomes also vary in size, and ants in many instances preferentially disperse diaspores with the greatest elaiosome/diaspore mass ratio, although plants produce seeds of different sizes, allowing for a variety of ants to effect their dispersal

2007, Victor Rico-Gray, Paulo S. Oliveira, The Ecology and Evolution of Ant-Plant Interactions, University of Chicago Press, page 47:

(botany) A fleshy structure rich in lipids attached to the seeds of many plant species, usually to attract ants that disperse the seeds.


myrmecophage

(biology) Anteaters, and other animals chiefly feeding on ants.


anting

When we say a bird is anting, we mean that it is on the ground or on a twig with one or both wings half-spread and with its tail drawn under the body. In this unusual attitude it can be seen picking up ants with its bill and rubbing its head among the undersides of the wings and – or – into the base of the tail.

1955, Holger Poulsen, “Experiments on Anting by Birds”, in Adolf Portmann, Ernst Sutter, editors, Acta Congressus internationalis ornithologici [Experientia: Supplementum; 3], Basel: Birkhäuser, →OCLC, page 608:

When anting the Jay does not pick up ants in the bill although it makes the same movements of the head as species which do. The wings are (at high intensity) spread quite widely and thrust forward like a canopy in front of the anting bird. Usually both wings are thrust forward together. I have seen a great number of both wild and captive Jays anting […]

1986, Derek Goodwin, Crows of the World, 2nd edition, London: British Museum (Natural History), →ISBN, page 199:

Blue jays are not just smart, they're also quirky. They are frequently given as exemplars of a bird behavior known as "anting," in which the bird lies down on an anthill with wings and tail spread and entices ants to swarm over it. Anting birds often grasp an ant in their beak, crush it, and wipe it under their wings, and over and through their feathers, and then sometimes eat them. […] The purpose of anting is still debated. It has been hypothesized that the formic acid in ants, when applied to the feathers, helps to control feather lice and other parasites, but the experimental evidence about this is mixed. It has also been suggested that birds are simply wiping the acid off so that the ants will taste better when they subsequently eat them. Others have suggested that anting is pleasurable, like a kind of bird catnip.

2011, Julie Feinstein, Field Guide to Urban Wildlife, Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, →ISBN, page 199:

Anting. A behavior in which the fluids from ants, notably formic acid, are applied to the plumage and possibly the skin. There are two basic types of the behavior: active anting, in which the bird anoints its plumage with the bill, and passive anting, in which the bird allows ants to invade and anoint the plumage. […] Some individuals of these species, in unnatural situations such as in captivity, perform active anting with burning matches and cigarette smoke, moth balls, hair tonic, mustard, citrus fruits, numerous insects other than ants, and other substitutes. What causes anting and what purpose or purposes it serves, if any, need investigation.

2013, Olin Sewall Pettingill, Jr., Ornithology in Laboratory and Field, 4th edition, Orlando, Fla.: Academic Press, →ISBN, page 251:

(ornithology) The practice of some birds of rubbing live ants or occasionally other items into the feathers, possibly as a means of controlling parasites.


solenopsin

en-noun

solenopsin (usually uncountable, plural solenopsins)

From translingual Solenopsis (“genus that includes fire ants”) + -in.

der

(biochemistry, organic chemistry) An alkaloid, with chemical formula C₁₇H₃₅N, that is considered the primary toxin in fire ant venom and that inhibits angiogenesis via the phosphoinositol-3 kinase signaling pathway.


apitherapy

The medical use of bee products such as honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly, and bee venom.


Beltian body

From Belt + -ian, after Thomas Belt (1832–1878), English geologist and naturalist.

(botany) A structure found on the tips of leaflets in some acacias, rich in lipids and proteins, believed to have evolved as part of a symbiotic relationship with ants.


fig wasp

A wasp of the family Agaonidae, some of which pollinate figs.


sand wasp

A predatory crabronid wasp that builds burrowlike nests in the ground:

Any of genus Ammophila of narrow-waisted hunting wasps, sometimes placed in Sphecidae.


crabronid

(zoology) Any member of the Crabronidae, a large family of wasps.


claviger

From Latin claviger, from clava (“club”) + gerere (“to carry”).

Standing body hairs are relatively less numerous and longer in claviger.

1968, Merle Wesley Wing, Taxonomic Revision of the Nearctic Genus Acanthomyops, page 81:

The workers of flavus group species are sometimes confused with claviger group workers, but can be distinguished by relatively dense pubescence all over the body, which creates a dull overall appearances.

2007, Brian L. Fisher, Stefan P. Cover, Ants of North America: A Guide to the Genera, page 104:

All of the species of the claviger group are believed to be temporary social parasits of other Lasius species, but the actual hosts are not all known.

2012, Aaron M. Ellison, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Elizabeth J. Farnsworth, A Field Guide to the Ants of New England, page 179:

(entomology) A group within genus Lasius (formerly considered a subgenera Acanthomyops) of bright yellow to orange species of ant that have 3 maxillary palps and give off a distinctive citronella odor when disturbed. The group name comes from their club-shaped palps.


eumenid

(zoology) Any member of the vespid subfamily Eumeninae, the potter wasps.


antproof

en-adj

antproof (comparative more antproof, superlative most antproof)

more antproof (comparative)
most antproof (superlative)


antless

An antless acacia is doomed. Janzen concluded that the ants and acacias are obligate symbionts, depending entirely upon each other.

2015, John Kricher, A Neotropical Companion, page 132:


soldierless

...some of the more highly evolved cryptic termites are soldierless.

2006, Helmut König, Ajit Varma, Intestinal microorganisms of termites and other invertebrates:


antiqueen

If the queen dies there is no longer any "antiqueen" pheromone released and one or more of the nymphs develop into queens.

The composition of a bee society is controlled by an antiqueen pheromone secreted by the queen. It inhibits the workers from raising a new queen...

Inhibiting the development of normal bees into queen bees.


parabiosis

en-noun

parabiosis (countable and uncountable, plural parabioses)

Parabiosis is the condition of more than one living organism joined ..., with ... circulatory fluids being exchanged among the parabionts.

2019, Ed. B. Parekkadan et al., Stem Cell Bioengineering:

2017 Cosima in "Manacled Slim Wrists", Orphan Black
Mud, parabiosis means that he is processing young blood and transfusing it.

(physiology) The (natural or surgical) union of parts of two organisms, especially in such a way as to cause them to share their vascular systems. Organisms so joined then are called parabionts.

Conjoined identical twins... could be thought of as parabionts.

The fusion of two embryos to form conjoined twins

A transient physiological state of suspension of obvious vital activities such as to enable an organism to escape the notice of its enemies or to conserve its energy.

(ecology, ethology) A form of symbiosis, typically among ants, in which different species share common nest galleries but maintain distinct broods and do not practice mutualism other than incidentally.

1873, Walter Moxon, Guy's Hospital Reports, 3rd series, Vol XVIII https://archive.org/details/3reportsguy18guysuoft
…the fever sperm coming into ... the living frame ... is able to create a sort of other life or parabiosis within it ....

(medicine) An alien form of life within an organism, commonly invasive, such as a growing cancer.


woodwasp

The Sirex woodwasp kills pines and sometimes other conifers by introducing a toxic mucus and fungus when the female lays her eggs through the bark and into the sapwood.

2007 April 23, The Associated Press, “Albany: Pine-Killing Wasp Monitored”, in New York Times:

Any of various not closely related insects of the suborder Symphyta (the sawflies, not true wasps), whose larvae are found in wood.


myrmecochory

Ants are integral components of terrestrial ecosystems, owing to their manifold interactions with other organisms. They serve as seed dispersers for plants (myrmecochory), mutualists with sap-sucking insects (trophobionts), and hosts for a wide range of associate organisms (myrmecophiles) and act as both predator and prey.

2022 September 19, Schultheiss et al., “The abundance, biomass, and distribution of ants on Earth”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, page 1, column 1:

(biology) The dispersal of seeds, spores, or fruit by ants.


attine

(zoology) Belonging to the Attini tribe of fungus-growing ants


supercolony

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-supercolony.wav

A group of nests whose ants do not exhibit mutual aggression.


unicoloniality

A social structure of ants in which the workers can move freely between different nests.


myrmecodomatium

A domatium specifically adapted to the accommodation of ants.


black garden ant

black garden ant (plural black garden ants)

A small (3 mm to 5 mm) species of ant common in Europe, Lasius niger.


antdom

[...] you could say he's left antdom by being so expanded and perhaps that's true although perhaps just as accurately he's actually achieved true antdom for the first time in his life [...]

2009, Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, Shaking the Quicksilver Pool:


Euro wasp

The debate over greater European integration took an unexpected twist yesterday with the arrival of Euro wasp in Britain.

2001 May 26, Stewart Payne, “Alarm over invasion of the Euro wasps”, in Telegraph (online):

(British) A median wasp (Dolichovespula media), an aggressive European wasp, which spread from the continent to Britain in 1980s.


thief ant

Solenopsis molesta, very small ants that sometimes nest close to other ant nests, from which they steal food.


ant farm

a glass-sided dirt-filled box containing ants, normally used as a biological study tool.


velvet ant

A wasp of the family Mutillidae with dense hair and whose wingless females resemble ants.


poneratoxin

A paralyzing neurotoxic peptide isolated from the venom of the bullet ant.


polistine

Any of the wasps of the subfamily Polistinae.


stenogastrine

Any of the wasps of the subfamily Stenogastrinae.


siricid

(zoology) Any of the family Siricidae of horntails, certain woodwasps.


megachilid

(zoology) Any of the family Megachilidae of mostly solitary bees whose scopa is restricted to the ventral surface of the abdomen.


tremble dance

A dance performed by the honey bee in order to recruit more bees to collect nectar from the workers.


anty

en-adj

anty (comparative more anty, superlative most anty)

more anty (comparative)
most anty (superlative)


ant mill

A phenomenon where a group of army ants separated from the main foraging party lose the pheromone track and begin to follow one another, forming a continuously rotating circle and eventually dying of exhaustion.


jointworm

The larva of a hymenopterous insect, Tetramesa tritici, found in gall-like swellings on wheatstalks, usually around the first joint.


xenovenine

(organic chemistry) A pyrrolizidine alkaloid found in the venom of certain ants.


rubytail

A European wasp, Chrysis ignita, with a bright red underside of the abdomen.


inchman

From inch (“unit of length”) + man (“soldier”).

We sit under the eaves to eat, or on stumps in the grass (there are “inchmen” about, giant lumbering bull ants).

1990, Beverley Farmer, A Body of Water: A Year's Notebook, page 46:

They would walk many miles along Ocean Beach and they would eat the fleshy leaves of the plant they called pigface and she called dead men's fingers, would rub the bite of jack-jumpers and the inchmen with the pulpy flesh.

1994, Richard Flanagan, Death of a River Guide, page 203:

Outside in the yard we had fierce orange bull ants whose bite was like a red-hot needle; and, for a season, two nests of the dreaded inchmen.

2004, John Harwood, The Ghost Writer, page 9:

(Australia, chiefly Tasmania) Any of several species of large, aggressive ants of the genus Myrmecia, mainly endemic to Australia.


ant sand

An ant-killing powder in granulated form.


sphex

From the Ancient Greek σφήξ (sphḗx, “wasp”), plural σφῆκες (sphêkes).

(zoology) Any of the sand wasps of Sphex and allied genera.


myrmicine

The discovery of tandem calling with pheromones in Leptothorax throws considerable light on the evolution of chemical recruitment techniques in myrmicine ants generally.

1990, Bert Hölldobler, Edward O. Wilson, The Ants, page 274:

The chemistry of the myrmicine genus Solenopsis is so aberrant that it reduces generalizations about ant venoms to the absurd.

2012, Murry Blum, Chemical Defenses of Arthropods, page 329:

(zoology) Of or pertaining to the ant subfamily Myrmicinae.

(zoology) Of or pertaining to the ant genus Myrmica.


myrmicine

Subfamily Myrmicinae
[…]Species of myrmicines are most likely to be confused with species of Leptanilla or Tetraponera because of the two-segmented petiole.

1999, Steven O. Shattuck, Australian Ants: Their Biology and Identification, volume 3, page 122:

The other dominant ant subfamilies were also present but with lesser importance (fig. 1.4). Toward the end of the ponerine expansion (Early Eocene), the myrmicines began to radiate, surpassing the ponerines in biomass and diversity.

2007, Victor Rico-Gray, Paulo S. Oliveira, The Ecology and Evolution of Ant-Plant Interactions, page 12:

The pseudomyrmecines can only be mistaken for myrmicines, but in the former there is always a fully developed promesonotal suture that is fully articulated and flexible in fresh specimens—a character that is always absent from myrmicines.

2016, Brian L. Fisher, Barry Bolton, Ants of Africa and Madagascar: A Guide to the Genera, page 56:

(zoology) Any ant of the subfamily Myrmicinae.


honeybag

good monsieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

A pouch in a honey bee where it stores honey.


formicid

(zoology) Any member of the ant family Formicidae.


skaddon

Borrowed from Ancient Greek σχαδών (skhadṓn, “larva of the bee or wasp”).

bor+

The reaſon is, that the vveather keeping them in, they can doe nothing but breed and hatch their schadons: and when they goe abroad, they bring in groſſe Bee meat, Ambroſia and vvater, vvherewith to feed them; but can finde nothing fit to lay vp in ſtore.

1623, Charles Butler, The Feminine Monarchie, London: Joseph Haviland, page 92:

This is a way hath been practised by the Ancients, and hath been much endeavoured after to be revived again, though not with any good success; for if you take away any part of their Combs in the Spring, they are then full of Skaddons, which spoil the Honey, and also destroy the breed of your Bees.

1669, John Worlidge, Systema Agriculturae, London: J. C., published 1675, page 186:

One ſays, in September, or any Time after they have done breeding (elſe the Honey will be corrupted by the Shaddens in the Combs) […]

1742, William Ellis, The Modern Husbandman, London: T. Osborne; M. Cooper, published 1744, page 107:

(UK, dialect, obsolete) The larva of a bee.


king of insects

(often capitalised as “King of Insects”, as is the convention for monarchic titles) The bee.


ant egg

A small white egg-shaped pupa or cocoon of an ant.


ichneumonidan

(zoology) Of or relating to the Ichneumonidae, or ichneumon wasps.


antly

en-adj

antly (comparative antlier or more antly, superlative antliest or most antly)

antlier (comparative)
more antly (comparative)
antliest (superlative)
most antly (superlative)

Statues, of heroic size, would be erected to the great ant heroes — warriors, builders, or what not — inscribed with phrases like, "He was the antliest ant of all time." . . . And of course there would be an anthropomorphic god.

1964, Conrad Aiken, Richard P. Blackmur, The collected novels of Conrad Aiken:

Beside the pool, the little workers were diligently going about their antly business, unnoticed by everybody except Milton.

Such a plan just wouldn't be reasonable, given typical antly survival requirements. Cooperation is surely the best policy. It would be much wiser for each ant to align its behaviour with that of its fellows, provided those other ants do [...]

2007, Robert Malcolm Murray, Jan Narveson, Liberty, Games and Contracts:

You must accept a proffered Pique Ant ambassador, as you are pique ants too. By antly protocol you are obliged to grant me the hospitality of the hill for a day and night.” “This is highly irregular.” “Nevertheless legitimate.

Of, resembling, characteristic of, or pertaining to ants; formic.


sphecid

The coloring indicates it’s a female. The males are smaller and mostly black. And you might not have been able to tell, but the sphecid wasps have a very narrow, threadlike waist.

2016 September 8, Joan Morris, “What’s been stealing my stuffing?”, in The Mercury News:

(zoology) Of or pertaining to the Sphecidae family of wasps.


topbar

(beekeeping) One of a set of parallel bars, at the top of a beehive, to which the bees attach their comb.


sauba ant

A South American leaf-cutter ant (Atta cephalotes).


red-banded sand wasp

en-noun

red-banded sand wasp (plural red-banded sand wasps)

Ammophila sabulosa, found in northern Europe, is a species of wasp within the subfamily Ammophilinae of the hunting wasp family Sphecidae.


euglossine

(zoology) Of or relating to the Euglossini, or orchid bees


tarantula hawk

A kind of spider wasp (family Pompilidae) with one of the most painful insect stings, that deposits an egg on its prey, which include tarantulas, the larvae feeding from the living prey.


pompilid

(zoology) Any member of the Pompilidae, or spider wasps.


kelep

The Guatemalan stinging ant Ectatomma tuberculatum.


agaonid

(zoology) A fig wasp, of family Agaonidae.


xiphydriid

(zoology) Any of the family Xiphydriidae of woodwasps.


xyelid

Like raphidiids, xyelids have the mesopleuron divided into an episternum and epimeron by a distinct mesopleural suture, but the suture is angled much more obliquely and the epimeron is much smaller than the episternum (Figs. 8-10).

1993, Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada:

(zoology) Any sawfly in the family Xyelidae.


xylocopid

(zoology) Any in the family Xylocopidae of carpenter bees, now considered the apid subfamily Xylocopinae.


ampulicid

(zoology) Any member of the Ampulicidae.


anaxyelid

(zoology) Any wood wasp in the family Anaxyelidae.


andrenid

(zoology) Any member of the family Andrenidae of bees.


anthophorid

(zoology) Any bee in the family Anthophoridae, now considered part of the family Apidae.


aphelinid

In most chalcidoids, the mesopleura have a groove for the femora, but encyrtids lack this groove (as do the signiphorids, tanaostigmatids, some aphelinids, and some eupelmids).

2005, Norman F. Johnson, Borror and DeLong's Introduction to the Study of Insects, page 531:

(zoology) Any member of the family Aphelinidae of parasitic wasps.


aphidiid

(zoology) Any parasitic wasp in the former family Aphidiidae, now considered to be part of the Braconidae.


aulacid

(zoology) Any member of the family Aulacidae of wasps.


bethylid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Bethylidae.


blasticotomid

(zoology) Any sawfly of the family Blasticotomidae.


bradynobaenid

(zoology) Any wasp of the family Bradynobaenidae.


cephid

(zoology) Any in the family Cephidae of sawflies.


ceraphronid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Ceraphronidae.


chalcidid

(zoology) Any member of the family Chalcididae, certain wasps.


chrysidid

Females of Delta campaniforme esuriens do not attack chrysidids that are breaking into their nests, but parasitism will cause them to abandon the nest (Jayakar and Spurway 1968).

1991, David P. Cowan, “2: The Solitary and Presocial Vespidae”, in Kenneth G. Ross, Robert W. Matthews, editors, The Social Biology of Wasps, page 56:

Chrysidids (3000 species) are especially diverse in temperate deserts of both hemispheres.

2005, Cedric Gillott, Entomology, page 342:

2006, Lynn Siri Kimsey, California Cuckoo Wasps in the Family Chrysididae (Hymenoptera), Entomology: Volume 125, University of California Press, page 4,
Species of Argochrysis exhibit an unusual behavior not seen in other chrysidids or parasitoids.

(zoology) Any wasp of the family Chrysididae.


cimbicid

(zoology) Any sawfly in the family Cimbicidae.


colletid

(zoology) Any member of the family Colletidae of solitary bees.


ctenoplectrid

Larval characters should be reanalyzed in light of recent information presented by Michener and Greenberg (1980) that indicates ctenoplectrids are the sister group of the long-tongued bee families (Figure 2).

1989, Ronald J. McGinley, A Catalog and Review of Immature Apoidea (Hymenoptera), page 5:

Obligate parasitism of other bees has arisen in halictids, megachilids, anthophorids, apids, and perhaps a few colletids and ctenoplectrids.

1989, David W. Roubik, Ecology and Natural History of Tropical Bees, published 1992, page 249:

Melittid bees have “hair felt” patches on their legs that take up floral oils by capillarity, while the unusual ctenoplectrids have abdominal oil-mopping hairs.

2011, Pat Willmer, Pollination and Floral Ecology, page 222:

(zoology) Any bee of the tribe Ctenoplectrini (especially when the latter is, as formerly by some, regarded as the family Ctenoplectridae).


cynipid

(zoology) Any member of the family Cynipidae of wasps.


diapriid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Diapriidae.


diprionid

(zoology) Any sawfly in the family Diprionidae.


dryinid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Dryinidae.


elasmid

(zoology) Any tiny parasitic wasp in the family Elasmidae, now considered to be part of the Eulophidae.


encyrtid

(zoology) Any parasitic wasp in the family Encyrtidae.


eucharitid

(zoology) Any parasitic wasp in the family Eucharitidae.


eulophid

(zoology) Any parasitic wasp of the family Eulophidae.


eupelmid

(zoology) Any member of the family Eupelmidae of parasitic wasps.


eurytomid

(zoology) Any parasitic wasp in the family Eurytomidae.


evaniid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Evaniidae.


figitid

(zoology) Any parasitoid wasp in the family Figitidae.


gasteruptiid

(zoology) Any parasitic wasp in the family Gasteruptiidae.


gasteruptionid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Gasteruptionidae, a synonym of the Gasteruptiidae.


halictid

A single Eleodes hispilabris (apparently on its last leg) was seen near the north end of the mesa, which I photographed and collected, and on the way back I encountered a small patch of Sphaeralcea coccinea (scarlet globemallow) in bloom, from the flowers of which I collected a few small melyrid-type beetles and a small halictid bee for Mike.

2022 May 14, Ted C. MacRae, Cupressaceae:

(zoology) Any member of the family Halictidae, many of which are known as sweat bees.


ibaliid

(zoology) Any cynipoid wasp in the family Ibaliidae.


ichneumonoid

(zoology) Any member of the superfamily Ichneumonoidea.


leucospid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Leucospidae.


masarid

(entomolology) Any member of the vespoid family Masaridae, which is now generally classified as the subfamily Masarinae of the family Vespidae.


megalyrid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Megalyridae.


megaspilid

(zoology) Any parasitic wasp in the family Megaspilidae.


meliponid

(zoology) Any bee in the family Meliponidae, now considered to be the apid tribe Meliponini.


melittid

Regarding the transport sites, apids, melittids, ctenoplectrids, and megachilids all show little variation whereas the other bee families display wide variation.

1992, David W. Roubik, editor, Ecology and Natural History of Tropical Bees, page 45:

In further support of the antiquity of this clade is the widely disjunct distribution of some of its basal members among the dasypodaine melittids, as indicated in Sections 26 and 68 and Michener (1981a).

2000, Charles Duncan Michener, The Bees of the World, volume 1, page 95:

The relatively good fossil representation of melittids and their long-tongued associates has been argued to be a reflection of a bias in favour of resin-collecting bees.

2010, Geoff Williams, Paul Adam, The Flowering of Australia's Rainforests: A Plant and Pollination Miscellany, page 105:

(zoology) Any bee of the family Melittidae.


mutillid

(zoology) Any velvet ant in the family Mutillidae.


mymarid

(zoology) Any chalcid wasp in the family Mymaridae.


mymarommatid

(zoology) Any tiny wasp in the family Mymarommatidae.


ormyrid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Ormyridae.


orussid

(zoology) Any wasp of the family Orussidae.


pamphiliid

(zoology) Any in the family Pamphiliidae of sawflies.


pelecinid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Pelecinidae.


pergid

(zoology) Any sawfly in the family Pergidae.


perilampid

(zoology) Any parasitic wasp of the family Perilampidae.


platygastrid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Platygastridae.


pteromalid

(zoology) Any member of the family Pteromalidae of parasitic wasps.


rhopalosomatid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Rhopalosomatidae.


sapygid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Sapygidae.


scelionid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Scelionidae.


scoliid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Scoliidae.


sierolomorphid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Sierolomorphidae.


signiphorid

(zoology) Any member of the Signiphoridae of parasitic wasps.


stenotritid

(zoology) Any bee in the family Stenotritidae (now subfamily Stenotritinae in Colletidae).


stephanid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Stephanidae.


tanaostigmatid

Galls on tamboti branches are caused by the larvae of a wasp of the tanaostigmatid family, which bores into the wood to lay her eggs.

1993, Braam Van Wyk, Bushveld Trees: Lifeblood of the Transvaal Lowveld, page 70:

We have indirect evidence that at least a couple species of Tanaostigmatidae (Tanaoneura hirticoxa and a species of Tanaostigmodes in the gracilis group) feed as inquilines in various leaf galls on Inga (influding morphospecies 21) and modify gall morphology, as has been reported in another tanaostigmatid species (Fernandes et al. 1987) and cynipid gall wasps (Brooks and Shorthouse 1998).

2014, Geraldo Wilson Fernandes, Neotropical Insect Galls, page 159:

(zoology) Any member of the family Tanaostigmatidae of parasitic wasps.


tenthredinid

(zoology) Any sawfly in the family Tenthredinidae.


tetracampid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Tetracampidae.


thysanid

(zoology) Any chalcidoid in the family Thysanidae, a synonym of the Signiphoridae.


tiphiid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Tiphiidae.


torymid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Torymidae.


trichogrammatid

(zoology) Any member of the Trichogrammatidae.


trigonalid

(zoology) Any wasp in the family Trigonalidae.


apple bee

(US) A social gathering of farmers to help gather in the apple harvest, or process the fruit.


Carniolan honeybee

Carniolan honeybee (plural Carniolan honeybees)

Apis mellifera carnica, a subspecies of the western honeybee


antling

Certainly, the kicking of the imprisoned antling is apparent enough to attract even the most stupid nurse, and the vigor of the motions, perhaps even the beginning of them, might easily give warning of the proper time for cutting the envelop.

1876, American Entomological Society, Transactions of the American Entomological Society - Volume 5 - Page 289:

This antling was, as indeed all the larvae and cocoons appeared to be, of the dwarf caste.

1884, The Annals and magazine of natural history:

Some of these caves were used as nurseries for eggs, larvaa, and antlings; [...]

1905, Harper's Magazine, volume 111, page 297:

Fortunately it so "happens " — if that be the lawful word — that its puparium is invariably formed at the posterior pole of the ant cocoon, directly opposite the anterior pole from which, as the point next to its jaws in its recumbent position, the antling emerges, and to which, as the point of fracture, the strain and force within and without are directed.

1909, Henry Christopher McCook, Ant communities and how they are governed:


beeling

Herein must go an egg and food for the beeling that shall hatch therefrom.

1906, Harper's magazine, volume 113, page 593:

[...] in which the pollen is gathered and carried to the cells to feed the hungry little larvae or beelings when they are hatched from the egg.

1907, Henry Christopher McCook, Nature's craftsmen:


monolectic

en-adj

monolectic (comparative more monolectic, superlative most monolectic)

more monolectic (comparative)
most monolectic (superlative)

A polylectic term is a multi-word term, as opposed to a monolectic term which is a one-word term.

(grammar) Of or relating to a term consisting of one word; one-worded, singleworded.


formicide

en-noun

formicide (countable and uncountable, plural formicides)

/ˈfɔːmɪsʌɪd/

Combining form of Latin formīca (“ant”) + -cide.


muryan

From Cornish muryon. Cognate with Breton merien and Welsh myrion.


myrmecophilous

en-adj

myrmecophilous (comparative more myrmecophilous, superlative most myrmecophilous)

more myrmecophilous (comparative)
most myrmecophilous (superlative)

(biology) Adapted to thrive in the presence of ants.


jet ant

A blackish European ant (Formica fuliginosa), which builds its nest of a paper-like material in the trunks of trees.


tarantula killer

en-noun

tarantula killer (plural tarantula killers)

Texas brown tarantula
Texas brown tarantula

(archaic) Any species of tarantula wasp, especially (Pepsis grossa) that captures the Texas brown tarantula (Aphonopelma hentzii) and places it in its nest as food for its young, after paralyzing it by a sting.


cockroach wasp

The emerald cockroach wasp, Ampulex compressa, uses a cockroach as a host by essentially taking over its mind.

2007, Craig Childs, The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild:

Equally fascinating was a video shot by Norman Hoyle, the school's Deputy Head, which showed a cockroach having been stung by a cockroach wasp (Ampulex Compressa) - though I seem to recall that the locals had a different name for it.

2010, Lynas Murdoch, Four Years on St Helena, page 92:

Mainly found in the tropics, cockroach wasps have a metallic green body and measure up to 33 mm long.[…]When a prey is located, the female cockroach wasp stings the prey to paralyse it.

2011, Peter K. L. Ng, Richard Corlett, Hugh T. W. Tan, editors, Singapore Biodiversity, page 268:

Any wasp of the family Ampulicidae, small sphecoid wasps that prey on cockroaches to lay their eggs on them.


plerergate

From Ancient Greek πλήρης (plḗrēs, “full”) + ergate.


plasterer bee

The plasterer bees, as we have seen, line the interior walls of their subterranean chambers with a waterproof wallpaper; others achieve a similar result by impregnating the cell walls with a glandular secretion or coating them with a waxy material.

1974, Karl von Frisch, Otto von Frisch, Animal Architecture, page 68:

Plasterer bees build mud nests in the mouldings, butterflies brush the scenery with brilliant colour — lemon-yellow brimstones, dappled whites, large tortoiseshells and swallowtails are all there for the spotting.

1989, Pamela Westland, Exploring Rural Greece, page 27:

Like masked bees, plasterer bees (Colletinae) line their rows of cells with a mixture of saliva and glandular secretion that hardens into a cellophane-like membrane.[…]Each female plasterer bee fashions roughly ten brood cells separated by plaster-like walls and leaves a honey-pollen clump and one egg in every cell (see the bottom of Figure 5.1).

2002, Karl Weiss, The Little Book of Bees, page 48:

Any bee of the subfamily Colletinae, solitary bees that secrete a substance from their mouthparts to give a cellophane-like lining to their nests.


emerald cockroach wasp

emerald cockroach wasp (plural emerald cockroach wasps)

[…]we have available at the moment an effective cockroach control program which does not require the use of a gram of chemicals. This is simply the encouragement in our homes of the emerald cockroach wasp, the ensign cockroach wasp and the wolf spider.

1971, Agricultural Science Review, page 35:

One interesting example of this is the emerald cockroach wasp Ampulex compressa which uses cockroaches as hosts for its developing offspring.

2009, David Penney, Field Guide to Wildlife of the Gambia, page 90:

The emerald cockroach wasp is one of nature's most incredible insects. The female does not kill the prey when it injects it with venom. Instead, the wasp turns the prey into a live food source for its growing young.

2011, Jay Dale, Deadly and Incredible Animals: Top Ten Minibeasts, page 11:

A cockroach wasp, of species Ampulex compressa.


sphecoid

From translingual Sphecidae (“taxonomic family of wasps”), from Ancient Greek σφήξ (sphḗx, “wasp”).

uder

On morphological grounds they fall closest to the sphecoid wasps, although the lack of an adequate fossil record has made it impossible to pinpoint the exact ancestral phyletic line. In a word, the Apoidea can be loosely characterized as sphecoid wasps that have specialized on collecting pollen instead of insect prey as larval food.

1975, Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, published 2000, page 428:

The literature pertaining to sphecoid wasps in Quebec may be divided into four broad categories: species surveys, biological studies, taxonomic studies and reference works.

1982, Albert T. Finnamore, The Sphecoidea of Southern Quebec (Hymenoptera), page 3:

Bees are similar to one group of wasps, the sphecoid wasps, but are quite unlike other Aculeata.

2000, Charles Duncan Michener, The Bees of the World, volume 1, page 2:

Of or pertaining to wasps formerly classified in the superfamily Sphecoidea (corresponding to all wasps in Apoidea), now sometimes treated as the series Spheciformes.


bee mother

From bee + mother, possibly as a calque of Old English bēomōdor (“queen bee”).

calque

[…] but how much more so when it must be acknowledged, that it is all owing to one female, and that this queen-bee, or bee-mother, alone, has given origin to such an immense progeny?

The youngest of the sisters—the one at the bottom—is only a tiny egg, which the bee-mother has laid in the cell.

1900, Allen Walton Gould, Mother Nature's Children, page 156:

The bee family is divided into three sections, the "queens," or bee-mothers, the drones, or male bees, and the workers. The duty of the "queen," or bee-mother, is to keep the hive well supplied with workers.

1903, Lilla Elizabeth Kelley, Three Hundred Things a Bright Girl Can Do, page 577:

Astonishingly, bee mothers can decide whether the egg they lay will develop into a male or female.

2019, Alison Benjamin, Brian McCallum, The Good Bee:

Imagine a monogamous bee mother and her supersister daughters (figure 6.2) who are preferentially helping their mother rear more supersisters (rₕₑₗₚ = 0.75): […]

2024, Keith S. Delaplane, Honey Bee Social Evolution:

March is the time of Wihlaxs, Black Bear's Walking Moon. Nox Ap, the bee mother, awakens from her winter slumber along the realm of Xsan, the River of Mists. Nox Ap seems to appear from the great beyond as the bumblebee queen crawls out of her warm hiding space.

2024, Hetxw’ms Gyetxw Brett D. Huson, The Bee Mother:

(rare) A queen bee (perceived as the mother of the hive)


cuckoo wasp

In this volume the author presents an account of the ants and cuckoo wasps.

1904, Experiment Station Record, volume 15, page 280:

In our account of the mason-wasps, we have referred to the destruction of their grubs by the interposition of the ruby-tails or cuckoo-wasps.

1916, Edward Step, Marvels of Insect Life: A Popular Account of Structure and Habit, page 470:

Dr. L. H. Taylor determined the cuckoo-wasps (Chrysididae); Dr. H. T. Fernald the Sphecidae;[…].

1921, Bulletin of the Boston Society of Natural History, volumes 25-48, page 133:

Any of the many wasps of the family Chrysididae that are kleptoparasites or parasitoids and are often brightly coloured.


slavemaker

A type of ant, a brood parasite that captures the brood of other ant species to increase the worker force of its own colony.


slavemaking

Engaging in the brood capture activity of a slavemaker ant.


Asian giant hornet

en-noun

Asian giant hornet (plural Asian giant hornets)

Vespa mandarinia
Vespa mandarinia#Translingual

Vespa mandarinia, the world's largest hornet, native to temperate and tropical Eastern Asia, and having a powerful sting.


slave ant

Any of various species of ants which are captured and enslaved by another species, especially Formica fusca of Europe and America, which is commonly enslaved by Formica sanguinea.


turf ant

A small European ant of species (Lasius flavus).


Franklin's bumblebee

Franklin's bumblebee (plural Franklin's bumblebees)

Named after American entomologist Henry J. Franklin, who monographed many bees throughout North & South America in the early 20th century.

named-after

Bombus franklini, an endangered bee of the western United States.


poppy bee

So-called because it uses pieces cut from poppy petals for the lining of its nest.


upholsterer bee

en-noun

upholsterer bee (plural upholsterer bees)


paper wasp

Any wasp in the vespid subfamily Polistinae, known for making paper-like nests out of fibers from dead wood and plant stems.


tinkerbell fairyfly

tinkerbell fairyfly (plural tinkerbell fairyflies)

Tinkerbella nana, a very small wasp (0.25 mm), of the family Mymaridae, found in the forests of Costa Rica, that lives off of the eggs of other insects.


tramp ant

From tramp (“ship without a fixed schedule”) + ant, because they are often inadvertently carried on ships.

2004, S. Bradleigh Vinson, Sean T, O'Keefe, Gordon W. Frankie, Chapter 6: The Conservation Values of Bees and Ants in the Costa Rican Dry Forest, G. W. Frankie, Alfonso Mata, S. Bradleigh Vinson (editors), Biodiversity Conservation in Costa Rica, page 67,
The occurrence of highly invasive (tramp) ants (Passera 1994) is of concern, and Saks and Carroll (1980) showed that tramp ants could become abundant in disturbed areas while remaining uncommon in nearby undisturbed forests. Exotic tramp ant species have been found to produce major changes in abundance and diversity of invertebrate species in other regions (Lubin 1984; Zenner-Polania 1994).

Of the nearly 2000 known ant species in the country, almost 50 species are classified as tramp ants (Bueno and Campos-Farinha, 1999).

2011, Ana Eugênia de Carvalho Campos, “2: Emerging Urban Pests and Vector-borne Diseases in Brazil”, in Partho Dhang, editor, Urban Pest Management: An Environmental Perspective, page 21:

Monomorium floricola is one the world's most broadly distributed tramp ants, although little is known about the ecological impacts of M. floricola (Wetterer, 2010a).

2012, Eli M. Sarnat, Evan P. Economo, The Ants of Fiji, page 88:

Any of various invasive species of ant often inadvertently transported in soil with cargo on ships, trains, etc.


wood ant

Any of the mound-building ants of the Formica rufa subgeneric group.


formicophilia

A paraphilia in which sexual stimulation occurs by being crawled upon or nibbled by small insects, such as ants.


bone-house wasp

bone-house wasp (plural bone-house wasps)


black canker

black canker (countable and uncountable, plural black cankers)

Among the numerous enemies to which turnips are liable, none have proved more fatal here than the black canker (a species of caterpillar) which in some years have been so numerous as to cut off the farmer's hopes in a few days.

1783, William Marshall, Account of the black canker caterpillar, which destroys the turnips in Norfolk, Royal Society, page 1:

In some seasons these pests are exceedingly numerous, and in the Eastern Counties the “Black Canker,” as it is called, lays waste entire fields of turnips.

1869, author unknown, Hardwick's Science Gossip, page 232:

The larva of the turnip sawfly (Athalia rosae), an agricultural pest having the appearance of a black caterpillar.


cicada killer

Sphecius speciosus, a large digger wasp that hunts cicadas.


bee wolf

Any of the solitary predatory wasps of the genus Philanthus.


xenobiosis

Although this explanation is readily suggested by the well-known cases of dulosis and xenobiosis in ants, we are, nevertheless, bound to reject it for the following reasons […]

1904, Bulletin of the University of Texas: Scientific series:

(biology) A form of symbiosis where one species of ant lives with another and the two species raise their young separately.


Japanese giant hornet

Japanese giant hornet (plural Japanese giant hornets)

A flying insect, Vespa mandarinia japonica, known for being a subspecies of the world's largest hornet.


gamergate

/ˈɡæm.əɹˌɡeɪt/

From Ancient Greek γάμος (gámos, “union, marriage”) + ergate.

der

Recent studies indicate that queenless societies can have either one or several gamergates per colony, which reveals that reproductive inhibition can occur despite the absence of the queen caste.

1990, Christian Peeters, “Monogyny and Polygyny in Ponerine Ants Without Queens”, in Social Insects and the Environment: Proceedings of the 11th International Congress of IUSSI, 1990, Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, →ISBN, page 234:

(entomology) A worker insect that can become capable of reproducing when the queen has died.


ergate

From Ancient Greek ἐργάτης (ergátēs, “workman”).

uder

The worker (ergates) is characterized by the complete absence of wings and a very small (stenonotal) thorax, much simplified in the structure of its sclerites.

1910, William Morton Wheeler, Ants: Their Structure, Development and Behavior, Columbia University Press, page 97:


bigheaded ant

An ant belonging to the invasive species Pheidole megacephala, noted for the extremely large heads of some of its workers


harvester ant

An ant belonging to any of a number of species which gather and store plant material (usually seeds) for food.


Argentine ant

A small, black ant belonging to the species Linepithema humilis, originally from Argentina, but now found in many places throughout the world.

formiga-argentina

a small, black ant belonging to the invasive species Linepithema humilis


cow killer

Any of several species of velvet ant in the family Mutillidae, which are known for their painful stings.


siafu

Male driver ants leave the colony soon after they hatch but are drawn to the scent trails left by colonies of siafu ants when they reach sexual maturity.

2016, Kevin Baker, The World's Most Dangerous Animals:

The siafus, together with the hyena, jackal and vulture, are the great scavengers of Kenya.

1957, William W. Baldwin, Mau Mau Man-hunt, page 216:


bee escape

Bee escapes have a long history in bee removal. These are simply one-way doors—bees leave a honey super and can't return, or at least they can't return the same way they left.

2009, Kim Flottum, The Backyard Beekeeper's Honey Handbook, page 67:

(apiculture) A panel having holes or mesh allowing bees to be removed from a hive before honey is harvested.


chalkbrood

A fungal disease of honey bees that gives the bodies of affected larvae a white and chalky appearance.


cloudy wing virus

collapsing colonies
colony collapse disorder

An icosahedral virus commonly found in honey bees, especially in collapsing colonies infested with Varroa destructor.


deformed wing virus

An RNA virus affecting the honey bee, causing shrunken and deformed wings in the pupa.


mule killer

(US, Southern US) Any of various unrelated arthropods, including whip scorpions, velvet ants, mantises, wheel bugs, and walking stick insects, that have been erroneously believed to kill livestock by stinging them or being swallowed.


wheat sawfly

A small European sawfly (Cephus pygmeus) whose larvae damage wheat by boring in the stalks.


turnip sawfly

Athalia rosae, a typical sawfly with dark green or blackish larvae that feed on brassicas.


trap-jaw ant

From trap + jaw + ant, because the mandibles (jaws) snap shut forcefully like a trap.

(entomology, informal) Any of a group of carnivorous ants, of the genus Odontomachus, that have mandibles that can snap shut on prey


vespoid

(zoology) Of or relating to the superfamily Vespoidea of wasps and ants.


disappearing disease

An unexplained phenomenon marked by a decrease in bee populations.


tocandira

Borrowed from Brazilian Portuguese tocandira.


mud dauber

A wasp, from either the family Sphecidae or Crabronidae, that builds its nest from mud.


microhymenopteran

The most diverse group was the microhymenopteran parasitoids (70 morphospecies; S1 Table ).

2015 July 10, “Grassland Arthropods Are Controlled by Direct and Indirect Interactions with Cattle but Are Largely Unaffected by Plant Provenance”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:

Any very small insect of the order Hymenoptera


sarothrum

/səˈɹɑθ.ɹəm/

Borrowed from Ancient Greek σάρωτρον (sárōtron, “a broom”).

bor

Any of the stiff hairs on a bee that collect pollen.


carpenter bee

A bee of the subfamily Xylocopinae, that burrows in dead wood.


blue ant

A parasitic tiphiid wasp of the species Diamma bicolor


chrysidoid

(zoology) Any member of the superfamily Chrysidoidea.


dorylomorph

which represents another independent origin of eusociality in addition to honeybee and ants; and several additional ant species, notably the dorylomorph Cerapachys biroi which represents the second most early-branching ant species following the ponerine Harpegnathos saltator (Oxley et al.)

2015 August 12, Xiaofan Zhou et al., “Chemoreceptor Evolution in Hymenoptera and Its Implications for the Evolution of Eusociality”, in Genome Biology and Evolution, volume 7, →DOI:

(zoology) A member of a taxonomic grouping of army ants and their relatives, comprising six subfamilies Leptanilloidinae, Cerapachyinae, Ecitoninae, and the monogeneric subfamilies Aenictinae, Aenictogitinae, and genus Dorylus sensu stricto, now all placed in Dorylinae sensu lato.


knopper gall

A gall that develops on the pedunculate oak, induced by the wasp Andricus quercuscalicis.