[Urdang et al. (1983) was consulted for clarity and confirmation]
AFROTROPICAL
– Zoogeographical region (one of eight) comprising Africa south of the
Sahara; compare
Nearctic & Palaearctic.
APEDAL (soil) – Generally referring
to materials in the B-horizon that are well aggregated (Soil Classification
Working Group, 1991).
BIOTOPE – Or microhabitat (Kenneth,
1975) – area supporting its own distinctive community.
BREEDING CELL
– Or royal chamber in which breeding reproductives (usually a pair) reside
and where copulation and egg-laying take place (eggs are removed by workers
and transported to nursery).
CAPPING –
Or idiothèque: mud sheet (Lepage, 1984) – outer covering
or wall of mound (composed of saliva and soil particles)
serving as protection around galleries (Fraser,
1993).
CARTON – Organic material (vegetable
matter and faeces) used in construction of certain kinds of mounds (loc.
cit.); e.g. Microcerotermes (Coaton, 1953).
CELLS (of nest)
– Single enclosures (cavities) usually of subspherical shape (Coaton &
Sheasby, 1972; Fraser, 1993).
CELLULOSE
– Main plant cell wall constituent: polysaccharide (carbohydrate) consisting
of long unbranched chains of linked monosaccharides or simple sugars, in
this case glucose (C6H12O6), that does
not hydrolyze to form other sugars; compare lignin.
CLIMOTYPE – Or climatic region
– one of 7 such areas in the Kruger National Park having its own typical
climate (Holdridge et al., 1971 in Venter, 1990).
DEALATION – Losing their (alates)
wings at the basal fractures by shrugging after nuptial
flight.
DIMORPHISM
– Two morphologically distinct types of individuals within the same species;
compare polymorphism.
ECCA – Second series or layer (lower
Permian) of four (Dwyka, Ecca, Beaufort and Stormberg) making up the formations
of the South African Karoo basin; Ecca sediments (subdivided into lower,
middle and upper Ecca) have a thickness of ca. 1 800 m and contain
coal beds; also found in West Africa and the Congo (Furon, 1963; Whitten,
1975).
ENVIROTYPE
– Modified 'ecozone' (Jacana Education & Kruger National Park, 1996)
generally consisting of lumped landscapes as conferred with W.P.D. Gertenbach;
original symbol identifiers of ecozones are used for envirotypes due to
map compatibility; compare
land form, landscape
& land type.
EPIGEAL –
On or close to the surface of the ground (aboveground) as opposed to hypogeal
(underground) and arboreal (tree-dwelling); compare lignicolous.
EUSOCIAL
– Applied to the condition or to the group possessing it in which individuals
display all of the following traits: cooperation in caring for the young;
reproductive division of labour with more or less sterile individuals working
on behalf of individuals engaged in reproduction; overlap of at least two
generations of life stages capable of contributing to colony labour (Wilson,
1972); compare
subsocial.
FERRALLITIC (soil) – A term developed
in Africa to describe highly eroded soils that are characterized by a clay
fraction (SiO2/Al2O3 molecular ratio)
of less than 1,3; low cation exchange capacity; loss of silica and bases
(Soil Classification Working Group, 1991).
FONTANELLE – Pale, depressed spot
on front of head of certain termites (Skaife, 1979); small gland orifice
or opening (Fuller, 1915).
FORAGING
– Searching for food and taking it back to the nest/mound;
carried out by workers accompanied by soldiers for protection.
FUNGUS COMBS
– Undigested and partly digested wood and vegetable matter serving as substrate
for cultivation of fungi (Fraser, 1993); fungus mycelia are intertwined
with comb material; only in the Macrotermitinae.
GALLERIES
– Subterranean to semi-subterranean passages making out a part of the nest
(loc. cit.).
GEOPHAGOUS – Soil-feeding (humus
and detritus) where soil is passed through gut.
HALOMORPHIC (soil) – Properties
wholly or partially determined by the presence of neutral and/or alkalic
salts (Soil Classification Working Group, 1991).
HEMIMETABOLOUS
– Metamorphosis slight (young resembling adults) as opposed to 'ametabolous'
(no metamorphosis, e.g. Thysanura – fishmoths) and 'holometabolous' (distinct
life stages, e.g. Lepidoptera – butterflies and moths) (Braack, pers. comm.).
HYALINE – Clear and translucent.
HYDROMORPHY – Process of gleying
(intense reduction) and mottling (colour variety) resulting from the intermittent
or permanent presence (saturation) of free water (Soil Classification Working
Group, 1991).
ISOTHERM – Line on map linking
places of equal temperature.
KOPPIE – Prominent, isolated hill
or outcrop [from Afrikaans].
LABIUM – Fused
pair of appendages forming the lower and more posterior 'lip' of insects
(De Villiers, 1989); compare labrum.
LABRUM – Lip
or liplike part being a cuticular plate forming the anterior upper lip
of insects (loc. cit.); compare labium.
LAND FORM
– One of 5 distinctive types of area in the Kruger National Park having
specific morphological or configurative surface features, e.g. local relief
, slope classes, drainage pattern and stream frequency (Venter, 1990);
compare envirotype, landscape
& land type.
LANDSCAPE
– One of 35 such areas in the Kruger National Park having a specific geomorphology,
macroclimate, soil and vegetation pattern together with associated fauna
(Gertenbach, 1983); compare envirotype, land
form & land type.
LAND TYPE
– One of 56 such areas in the Kruger National Park having a distinctive
hillslope profile consisting of land units (e.g. crest, scarp, midslope,
footslope, valley bottom) with its own characteristic morphometric, soil
and vegetation variables (Venter, 1990); compare envirotype,
land
form & landscape.
LIGNICOLOUS
– Wood-dwelling (Scholtz & Holm, 1989).
LIGNIN – Complex
polymer (compound with large molecules composed of relatively simple repetitive
units) occurring in certain plant cell walls (fibre) to make the plant
rigid; compare
cellulose.
LIGULA – Distal part of the labium
composed of four paired lobes (De Villiers, 1989).
LITHOSOL – Usually shallow soil
consisting of weathered stone or rock fragments without distinct soil morphology;
sometimes called 'skeletal soil' (Soil Classification Working Group, 1991).
LOWVELD – One of three regions
including the eastern parts of the South African province of Mpumalanga
(capital: Nelspruit) in the northeastern parts of the country; casually
meaning an area of low-lying bushveld; other regions are the Escarpment
(Middleveld) and the Highveld (Smith, unpubl.).
MONTMORILLONITIC (clay) – From
montmorillonite – member of the smectite group (molecules orientated in
layers) of swelling, clay minerals comprising 2: 1 unit layers rich in
magnesium (Soil Classification Working Group, 1991).
MOUND – Epigeal
structure composed of galleries, cells
and capping constructed by many members of Termitidae
(Coaton, 1953); see termitarium.
NANITIC – From nanicism – dwarfishness.
NASUTES – Belonging to the family
Nasutitermitinae; soldiers have mouthparts (nasus) that eject fluid as
defence mechanism (Weesner, 1969; Fraser, 1993).
NEARCTIC
– Zoogeographical region (one of eight) comprising North America north
of the tropic of Cancer and Greenland; compare Afrotropical
& Palaearctic.
NEST – Colony's
residential area comprising the following: breeding
cell, nurseries and fungus gardens on combs
(if occurring); see termitarium.
NUPTIAL FLIGHT
– So-called 'wedding' flight undertaken by alates before pairing takes
place.
NURSERY –
Cell/s
housing eggs and nymphs (Fraser, 1993).
NYMPHS – Immature
insects (hemimetabolous) resembling the adults
and developing into adults without pupal stage.
OMURAMBA – Shallow river or water
course overgrown with grass and only flowing during heavy rains; non-perennial
tributary; literally 'river bed' or 'dry water course' [from Herero] (Albertyn,
1984; Raper, 1987).
OOPHAGY – Feeding on eggs.
PACKING – Soil filled into cavities
hollowed out in a wooden food source (e.g. Odontotermes and Microcerotermes),
seemingly to protect the remainder (Fraser, 1993).
PALAEARCTIC
– Zoogeographical region (one of eight) comprising Europe, Africa north
of the Sahara and most of Asia north of the Himalayas; compare Afrotropical
& Nearctic.
PHEROMONE – Or ectohormone – chemical
substance (highly volatile organic acid or alcohol) effective in minute
concentrations, emitted into the environment as a signal to another organism
(usually of the same species); important in social behaviour (cohesion,
pairing, marking, coordination) (Isaacs et al., 1991).
PHYLOGENY – Evolutionary history
of an organism or group of related organisms (loc. cit.).
PHYSOGASTRIC (female) – From physogastry:
expansion of the abdomen as egg-laying capacity increases (Harris, 1971).
POLYMORPHISM
– Occurrence of more than one morphotype within an interbreeding population
of a single species; compare dimorphism.
PROGNATHOUS – Head and body axes
are in line and the mouthparts are directed forwards (De Villiers, 1989).
PRONOTUM – Dorsal plate on first
thoracic segment behind the head of an insect (loc. cit.).
PSEUDERGATES – Or 'false workers'
– alate nymphs that have regressed from nymphal stage
by 'stationary', non-differentiating moults that reduce or eliminate wing
buds (Miller, 1969); perform duties of true workers and occur in the 'primitive'
Kalotermitidae (Skaife, 1979).
PTEROTHORAX – Collective name for
meso and metathorax (2nd and 3rd thoracic segment), each of which may bear
a pair of wings (De Villiers, 1989).
RELIEF – Altitude
variation of an area; difference between highest and lowest levels.
RUNWAYS – Trails used by foraging
individuals (Fraser, 1993).
SHEETING – Layer of soil partly
or wholly covering food source (e.g. Macrotermes spp., Odontotermes
spp. and Allodontermes rhodesiensis) away from nest
or mound, also protecting the foraging
termites from predators and the elements (loc. cit.).
SPIROCHAETES – Any of a group of
spirally coiled, rodlike bacteria.
STERNITE – Ventral part of an abdominal
segment (as opposed to tergite – dorsal) (De Villiers, 1989).
STOMODEAL (food) – From stomodeum:
anterior ectoderm-surrounding portion of alimentary canal (Kenneth, 1975);
foregut nourishment trophallaxically distributed.
SUBSOCIAL
– Applied to the condition or group showing it in which the adults care
for their young for some period of time (Wilson, 1972); compare eusocial.
SWARMING – Nuptial
flights conducted by alates, usually after good rains during spring
or early to mid-summer (species-specific).
TARSUS – Fifth part of an insect's
leg lying between the tibia (4th) and the distal pretarsus (6th) (De Villiers,
1989).
TERMITARIUM
– Nest of a colony of termites (Uys, pers. comm.);
many termites reside in termitariums (others are lignicolous),
but not all have mounds.
TERMITOPHILE – Termite-symbiotic
invertebrate or guest from another order dependent on the termite colony
for at least part of its life cycle (Wilson, 1972).
TROPHALLAXIC –
Feeding behaviour where exchange of nutrients and intestinal symbionts
between individuals on contact is eminent (La Fage & Nutting, 1978).
VELD – Open grassland in southern
Africa; similar to 'pampas' (South American plains), 'prairie' (North American
meadow) or 'steppe' (Russian lowland) [from Afrikaans via Dutch].
VLEI – Type of wetland slightly
drier than marshes; rushes and terrestrial grasses occurring; similar to
'fen' (Europe) and 'bog' (North America) [from Afrikaans] (Meyer, 1992).
Compiled by Victor
Meyer 1996
[Originally edited by Leo Braack, Vivienne Uys & Jill Archer]
No glossary is exhaustive – that's why it's
not called a dictionary!
Copyright © 2000 VWM.