Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A colony of social insects, especially ants, that is so large that workers from distant nests within the same colony cannot interact directly with each other.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A group of
nests whoseants do not exhibitmutual aggression .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Within just a few years of their arrival the six-legged stowaways formed a single, massive colony--known as a supercolony--that stretched through California from south of the Mexico border to San Francisco.
Genetic Weapons To Stop Argentine Ant Supercolonies? scientificamerican.com 2011
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Within just a few years of their arrival the six-legged stowaways formed a single, massive colony--known as a supercolony--that stretched through California from south of the Mexico border to San Francisco.
Genetic Weapons To Stop Argentine Ant Supercolonies? scientificamerican.com 2011
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But the researchers concluded that ants in the supercolony were all close enough genetically to recognize one another, despite being from different nests with different queens.
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The supercolony we live over is about 600 miles long ..
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The supercolony we live over is about 600 miles long, and unfortunately it's going to be another few decades before lack of genetic diversity is going to affect it.
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I'm always fascinated by the evolutionary potential of such supercolony creatures, but sometimes the next evolutionary leap isn't something you want happening in your backyard.
Them! Walter Jon Williams 2006
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Leave an open box of Honey Smacks on the counter in California and in ten minutes a supercolony of ants will have staked out a new HQ.
August 2004 ladygoat 2004
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A supercolony of ants, thousands of miles long, has been discovered, stretching from the Italian Riviera to Spain.
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Leave an open box of Honey Smacks on the counter in California and in ten minutes a supercolony of ants will have staked out a new HQ.
Cereal killers! ladygoat 2004
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A species of Argentine ant introduced into Europe about 80 years ago has developed the largest supercolony ever recorded.
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