gyne Ent.
(dʒaɪn)
[ad. Gr. γυνή woman.]
The fertile female in a colony of social insects, esp. a queen ant. Hence ˈgynæcoid a. [see gynæco- and -oid], showing some characteristics of this type of insect.
| [1905 tr. E. Wasmann's Compar. Stud. Psychol. Ants iv. 164 Intermediate forms between females and worker ants..female-like workers, which I have named pseudo⁓females (pseudogynes).] 1907 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. XXIII. 54 The female (gynē), or queen, is the more highly specialized sex among ants and is characterized, as a rule, by her large stature and the more uniform development of her organs. 1915 H. St. J. K. Donisthorpe Brit. Ants 38 The female (gyne), queen, or α-female, is the most highly specialized sex. |
| 1907 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. XXIII. 24 Wasmann's ‘gynæcoid workers’, which are merely workers whose ovaries contain mature eggs. 1933 W. M. Wheeler Colony-founding among Ants 132 He cites the development of fertile gynaecoid workers and the rearing of substitution queens in ant and termite colonies that have lost their mother. 1953 Q. Rev. Biol. XXVIII. 145/1 Ergatogyne. Individuals falling along the allometric progression connecting the queen and worker castes, ranging from subapterous forms with queen-like alitrunks to slightly gynecoid workers. |