swarmer
- noun
- /ˈswɔrmər/
- Specialized
- During the spring, swarming season begins, and the young swarmer termites leave their colony to find mates.
Examples
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After several weeks, the swarmer honeybees emerge to establish new hives in search of fresh flowers.
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Swarmers are winged termites called alates that take flight to mate and start new colonies.
Academic text (2000) -
The adult sets down on the substrate and this is the swarmer cell sitting down as an adult.
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The naturalist explained how a swarmer forms when a portion of the colony splits off to create a new community.
Synonyms
A female aphid that produces the first young and starts a new colony
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Swarmer comes from swarm, which means 'to move together' as insects do when they leave a nest. In nature, 'swarmers' are the insects that go off together to start a new colony, so a swarmer is an individual that leaves the old group to found a new one.