ANT. In the zoological sense ants are a very natural group of insects which forms the superfamily Formicoidea of the order HYMENOPTERA (q.v.). They are easily recognized by the elbowed antennae, the conspicuous "waist" formed by a constriction of the abdomen where it unites with the thorax, and generally by the absence of wings. Ants live in societies which inhabit nests of varied kinds : each society consists of numerous wingless, sterile, worker individuals together with males and egg-laying females. The fertile males and females are commonly winged and they eventually leave the nest, often in great swarms : mating takes porch or part of a porch in the temples of ancient Greece. They are masonry developments from early wooden structural posts, used, as in the Heraeum at Olympia, to reinforce the brick walls. The term is also used in modern work to describe any pilaster whose detail resembles that of a true anta. Columns set between antae are termed "in antis." (See GREEK ARCHITECTURE.)