Ronald E. Kiel

An alate reproductive caste is the winged reproductive form produced by a social insect colony. Its role is to leave the parent colony, mate, disperse, and, in successful cases, begin a new reproductive line through colony founding. In ants, alates are usually winged males and virgin queens; males die after mating, while mated females shed

Dealation is the loss or shedding of wings by an adult insect after a dispersal or mating flight. In practical insect identification, the term is used most often for ants and termites: an alate is the winged reproductive stage, while a dealate is the same kind of insect after the wings have been shed, broken

An alate insect is a winged reproductive form produced by a mature colony, not a separate species. Its life cycle usually moves from colony production to winged emergence, mating flight, wing loss, nest founding, egg laying, and the first worker generation. This pattern is most familiar in ants and termites, where winged males and females

In botany, alate means winged or furnished with a thin wing-like expansion. The term may describe a seed, fruit, stem, petiole, rachis, ovary, or other plant part, so it should not be read only as a seed-dispersal term. In plant morphology, alate is most familiar in samaras, the dry winged fruits of maples, ashes, elms,

Alate means winged. In entomology, the word is most often used for the winged reproductive or dispersal form of social insects, especially ants and termites, and it is also used for winged forms of some aphids. [a] The term does not name a species, family, or order. It describes a body form or life-stage role:

Some insects have wings because flight helps them disperse, find mates, escape local crowding, or start new colonies. Other insects lack wings because they belong to primitively wingless lineages, are immature stages, are worker castes, or come from winged ancestors that later lost wings when flight stopped being useful. Insect wings are mainly adult structures