Alate

Alate (Latin ālātus, from āla (“wing”)) is an adjective and noun used in entomology and botany to refer to something that has wings or winglike structures.^[1]

In entomology

Dorylus male alate

In entomology, "alate" usually refers to the winged form of a social insect, especially ants^[2]: 209 or termites,^[3] though it can also be applied to aphids^[4] and some thrips.^[5]

Alate females are referred to as gynes, and are typically those destined to become queens.^[6] A "dealate" is an adult insect that shed or lost its wings ("dealation").^[7]

In botany

Euonymus alatus has wing-like structures on the stems

In botany, "alate" refers to wing-like structures on some seeds that use wind dispersal. It is also used to describe flattened ridges which run longitudinally on stems.^[8]

References

1. Collins Dictionary (Seventh ed.). Collins. 2008. p. 34. ISBN 9780007261123.
2. Hölldobler, Bert; Wilson, Edward O. (1990). The ants. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-04075-5.
3. Mill, Alan E. (June 1983). "Observations on Brazilian termite alate swarms and some structures used in the dispersal of reproductives (Isoptera: Termitidae)". Journal of Natural History. 17 (3): 309–320. doi:10.1080/00222938300770231. ISSN 0022-2933.
4. Hodgson, E. W.; Venette, R. C.; Abrahamson, M.; Ragsdale, D. W. (2005-12-01). "Alate Production of Soybean Aphid (Homoptera: Aphididae) in Minnesota". Environmental Entomology. 34 (6): 1456–1463. doi:10.1603/0046-225X-34.6.1456.
5. Gilbert, James D. J.; Simpson, Stephen J. (October 2013). "Natural history and behaviour of Dunatothrips aneurae Mound (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae), a phyllode-gluing thrips with facultative pleometrosis: Natural History of Dunatothrips Aneurae". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 109 (4): 802–816. doi:10.1111/bij.12100.
6. Ho, Eddie K. H.; Frederickson, Megan E. (November 2014). "Alate susceptibility in ants". Ecology and Evolution. 4 (22): 4209–4219. Bibcode:2014EcoEv...4.4209H. doi:10.1002/ece3.1291. ISSN 2045-7758. PMC 4267860. PMID 25540683.
7. Tian, Haisheng; Vinson, S. Bradleigh; Coates, Craig J. (2004-09-01). "Differential gene expression between alate and dealate queens in the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)". Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 34 (9): 937–949. Bibcode:2004IBMB...34..937H. doi:10.1016/j.ibmb.2004.06.004. ISSN 0965-1748. PMID 15350613.
8. Harrison, Lorraine (2012). Latin for Gardeners. Royal Horticultural Society. p. 20. ISBN 9781845337315.

External links

• The dictionary definition of alate at Wiktionary