Tumulus (biology)

For other uses, see Tumulus (disambiguation).

In biology, a tumulus (pl.: tumuli) is a small mound of earth surrounding the entrance of the nest of fossorial (ground-nesting) ants, bees, or wasps. In the case of ants, this mound is almost universally referred to as an "anthill" (or "ant hill"); the worker ants typically pile sand or soil outside the entrance to the nest in the process of excavation.[1] In the case of bees and wasps, there is no corresponding common term, and such mounds are referred to as "tumuli" (e.g.[2][3]).

The tumulus is typically symmetrical or nearly so, a simple accumulation of excavated material, though there are occasional examples where the mound is skewed towards one side, with the entrance therefore not in the middle of the mound.[2] If the material is loose, it may be blown away by wind or washed away by rain, but as nest excavation generally is continuous over the course of a season, the tumulus is usually re-formed fairly rapidly.[3]

References

  1. ^ Claybourne, A. (2013). A Colony of Ants: and Other Insect Groups. Oxford, UK: Raintree Publishers. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-4062-5563-8.
  2. ^ a b Stephen, W.P. (1969). "The Biology and External Morphology of Bees with a Synopsis of the Genera of Northwestern America". Agricultural Experiment Station.
  3. ^ a b Danforth, B.N., Minckley, R.L., Neff, J.L. (2019) The Solitary Bees: Biology, Evolution, Conservation Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. 472 pp.
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