William Morton Wheeler wrote in 1937.
Factual statements and inferences from morphology, ethology, and phylogeny:
(1) The ants, like the bees, are merely a peculiarly specialized group of wasps.
(2) A worker caste has developed independently in each of the three groups of Aculeate Hymenoptera (wasps, bees, ants).
(3) This caste, at least in the ants, has been remarkably stable and highly specialized since Pre-tertiary times.
We are designating the two castes simply as “female” and “worker,” and are therefore restricting the use of the former term throughout this paper to the fertile as distinguished from the normally sterile female or worker. The terms “feminized” and “feminization” refer to the influence of the female as a distinct genotype on the other castes. “Ergatized” and “ergatization" are suggested as corresponding terms for the influence of the worker.
“Queen,” while useful as a designation for the fertile mother queen of a colony, is objectionable on account of its inept anthropomorphic connotations and was long ago discarded by the taxonomists. The term “neuter” for worker, in general use at a time when this caste was supposed to be sexless, is now rare except in popular writings.
Comment: As early as 1915, the term Gyne was used: The female (gyne), queen, or α-female, is the most highly specialized sex. (Horace St Donisthorpe · British Ants)
PLB
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