heterogynous

[het-uh-roj-uh-nuhs]

adjective

Zoology.

1. having females of two different kinds, one sexual and the other abortive or neuter, as ants.

heterogynous

/ ˌhɛtəˈrɒdʒɪnəs /

adjective

1. (of ants, bees, etc) having two types of female, one fertile and the other infertile

Word History and Origins

Origin of heterogynous¹

First recorded in 1850–55; hetero- + -gynous

Example Sentences

"Hard to pull a man's name to pieces before his face ha, ha! but I am a not one thing myself a kind of heterogynous I am a piece of a physician, and a little in the agricultural line also; so it's all fair."

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External differences apparently so small, and which might elsewhere be deemed inadequate to the establishment of genera, become important in this remarkable family, from their being confirmed by the structure of the trophi, and the strong distinctions exhibited in their females in every instance that has yet presented itself to me, wherever I have had the certainty of specific identity in these heterogynous insects, from the direct observation of my friends in Australia.

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"Hard to pull a man's name to pieces before his face,—ha, ha! but I am—a—not one thing myself,—a kind of heterogynous—I am a piece of a physician and a little in the agricultural line also; so it's all fair."

Read more on Project Gutenberg