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Pertaining to, or derived from, ants; as, formic acid; in an extended sense, pertaining to, or derived from, formic acid; as, formic ether. Amido formic acid, carbamic acid. -- Formic acid, a colorless, mobile liquid, HCO.OH, of a sharp, acid taste, occurring naturally in ants, nettles, pine needles, etc., and produce…

A Linnæan genus of hymenopterous insects, including the common ants. See Ant.

Like or pertaining to the family Formicaridæ or ant thrushes.

The nest or dwelling of a swarm of ants; an ant-hill.

Resembling, or pertaining to, an ant or ants.

A sensation resembling that made by the creeping of ants on the skin. Dunglison.

One of the family Formicidæ, or ants.

A hymenopterous insect of the Linnæan genus Formica, which is now made a family of several genera; an emmet; a pismire.

capture ants, etc. The common American species is Myrmeleon obsoletus, the European is M. formicarius.

ut occurring as a salt of ammonium in commercial ammonium carbonate; -- called also amido formic acid.

rded as the essential and characteristic constituent which all oxygen acids of carbon (as formic, acetic, benzoic acids, etc.) have in common; -- called also oxatyl.

A california woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus), noted for its habit of inserting acorns in holes which it drills in trees. The acorns become infested by insect larvæ, which, when grown, are extracted for food by the bird.

A compound of chloral and formic amide used to produce sleep.

y substance. Fatty acid (Chem.), any one of the paraffin series of monocarbonic acids, as formic acid, acetic, etc.; -- so called because the higher members, as stearic and palmitic acids, occur in the natural fats, and are themselves fatlike substances. -- Fatty clays. See under Clay. -- Fatty degeneration (Med.), a…

sembling acetic or ethyl aldehyde, and chemically intermediate between methyl alcohol and formic acid.

A salt of formic acid. [Written also formiate.]

A univalent radical, H.C:O, regarded as the essential residue of formic acid and aldehyde.

ly upon the ground. -- Ground pearl (Zoöl.), an insect of the family Coccidæ (Margarodes formicarum), found in ants' nests in the Bahamas, and having a shelly covering. They are strung like beads, and made into necklaces by the natives. -- Ground pig (Zoöl.), a large, burrowing, African rodent (Aulacodus Swinderianus…

ed up about them; as, a hill of corn or potatoes. [U. S.] Hill ant (Zoöl.), a common ant (Formica rufa), of Europe and America, which makes mounds or ant-hills over its nests. -- Hill myna (Zoöl.), one of several species of birds of India, of the genus Gracula, and allied to the starlings. They are easily taught to sp…

buttons, etc. Formerly called also black amber. Jet ant (Zoöl.), a blackish European ant (Formica fuliginosa), which builds its nest of a paperlike material in the trunks of trees.