White ant

Definition of White ant

(Zool.)

any one of numerous species of social pseudoneuropterous insects of the genus Termes. These insects are very abundant in tropical countries, and form large and complex communities consisting of numerous asexual workers of one or more kinds, of large-headed asexual individuals called soldiers, of one or more queens (or fertile females) often having the body enormously distended by the eggs, and, at certain seasons of numerous winged males, together with the larvæ and pupæ of each kind in various stages of development. Many of the species construct large and complicated nests, sometimes in the form of domelike structures rising several feet above the ground and connected with extensive subterranean galleries and chambers. In their social habits they closely resemble the true ants. They feed upon animal and vegetable substances of various kinds, including timber, and are often very destructive to buildings and furniture.

See also: White

Related Words

Cryptotermes brevis, insect, Isoptera, Mastotermes darwiniensis, Mastotermes electrodominicus, Mastotermes electromexicus, order Isoptera, powder-post termite, Reticulitermes flanipes, Reticulitermes lucifugus, termite

Browse

Whistler
Whistlewing
Whistlewood
Whistling
Whistling buoy
Whistling coot
Whistling Dick
Whistling duck
Whistling eagle
whistling hawk
Whistling plover
Whistling snipe
Whistling swan
Whistling teal
Whistling thrush
Whistlingly
Whistly
Whit
White
White alder
-White ant-
White arsenic
White bass
White bear
White bedstraw
White blood cell
White blood corpuscles
White brand
white brant
White brass
White campion
White canon
White caps
White cedar
White cell
White cell-blood
White clover
White copper
White copperas
White coral
White corpuscle

# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

© 2009 Interapple, Inc. Cover