Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A female ant of worker-like aspect due to the absence of wings and wing-muscles; an ergatoid female.
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yarb commented on the word ergatogyne
...the place of the queen is taken over by a modified worker, whose ovaries distend, and which becomes capable of being fertilized by the males. Such workers, known as ergatogynes, however, never develop wings. They are fertilized on the ground, probably by their own nest-brothers.
- Caryl P. Haskins, Of Ants and Men, 1939, p. 88
December 11, 2008