[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886) › c10.455 # Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.455 Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.455 - **Language:** English ### [c10.455](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.455) ANT, WHITE, \*s.\* The insect (\*Termes bellicosus\* of naturalists) not properly an ant, of whose destructive powers there are in India so many disagreeable experiences, and so many marvellous stories. The phrase was perhaps taken up by the English from the Port. \*formigas branchas\*, which is in Bluteau’s Dict. (1713, iv. 175). But indeed the same expression is used in the 14th century by our medieval authority. It is, we believe, a fact that these insects have been established at Rochelle in France, for a long period, and more recently at St. Helena. They exist also at the Convent of Mt. Sinai, and a species in Queensland. - [Previous: c10.454](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.454) - [Next: c10.456](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.456) - [Up: c10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.455](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.455) · Pramāṇa