ant–

(invertebrate zoology) The common name for insects in the hymenopteran family Formicidae; all are social, and colonies exhibit a highly complex organization.

All ants are classified in a single family, Formicidae; this reflects their limited structural variation. They are thought to have evolved from a wasplike ectoparasite of soil insects. Australia contains many primitive species, including the bulldog ants, which are large and fierce and live in small colonies (subfamily Myrmicinae). A common tropical group (Ponerinae) has evolved specialists in group raiding for soil insects, especially preying upon the ubiquitous termites. Also tropical is a set of predacious species (Dorylinae) whose colonies can contain a million workers, but only one queen; as well as hunting in groups, the whole colony roams nomadically through the forests. Other subfamilies are no longer exclusively predacious: in the Formicinae, which include the most conspicuous temperate region ants, plant-sucking bugs are used as a source of honeydew which, though mainly sugary, contains some soluble proteins. Wood ants (Formica species) pile dead vegetation into huge mound nests inside which they can retain their body heat. From the nests they establish permanent trackways to aphid-bearing trees, on which they also capture many insect larvae, including those injurious to forest trees. Each tree is part of a large territory which is defended against neighboring colonies. Yellow ants (Lasius flavus) culture aphids of many sorts on roots belowground and apparently use their carcasses as meat; in Europe they build soil mounds in old hillside grassland. In the tropics the leaf-nesting ants (Oecophylla species), which use larval silk to bind leaves together into a nest, culture plant-bugs in trees as well as prey upon a variety of insects; they can be used to protect fruit bushes from harmful insects.

In subfamily Myrmicinae, though there are many simple, mundane species with mixed diets, some specialists have almost given up predation. Thus grain collectors store and eat seeds; any seeds that germinate are put out and, mixed with rubbish, may start new plants nearer home (surely agriculture in its infancy). Then there are the leaf-cutting ants (tribe Attini) of Central America that collect vegetation and feed it to a species of fungus whose special bodies they then eat. These ants secrete a battery of chemicals for stopping the growth of weed species. Ants of another subfamily (Pseudomyrmicinae) have close mutualistic relations with plants: the plants supply special hollow galls, stems, or swollen thorns and offer nourishing tissues inside; the ants live and feed in these cavities and in exchange protect the plant from phytophagous insects and other enemies.

All female ants are social insects (the males exist only briefly to provide sperm) that live in dense clusters in nests made to protect against weather and enemies and to provide a work surface on which to rear their young. There are two types of female: small, wingless ones (called workers) that construct and defend the nest as well as collect and prepare food for the almost helpless larvae; and large, winged ones (called queens) that fly off to copulate, disperse, and start new nests, and which, after breaking off their wings, not only lay most of the eggs (usually all the female eggs and often the male ones too) but stimulate and organize worker activity. Workers usually have ovaries but no sperm sac, and the few eggs each lays are unfertilized; though haploid, they can produce males by parthenogenesis, for sex is determined by a haplo-diploid mechanism as in most insects of this order (Hymenoptera). See also Hymenoptera; Social insects.

A set of procedures, laws or regulations designed to stop the practice of generating income through illegal actions. In most cases money launderers hide their actions through a series of steps that make it look like money coming from illegal or unethical sources was earned legitimately.

Investopedia Says:
Though anti-money-laundering laws cover only a relatively limited number of transactions and criminal behaviors, their implications are extremely far reaching. An example of AML regulations are those that require institutions issuing credit or allowing customers open accounts to complete a number of due-diligence procedures to ensure that these institutions are not aiding in money-laundering activities. The onus to perform these procedures is on the institutions, not the criminals or the government.

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Variant of anti–.