Communal peeing: a new mode of flood control in ants

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:39 AM -0400 4/2/01, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>A few questions need to be addressed here.
>
>(1) Is "pee" a conventional verb in the specialized nomenclature of
>entomology? [I suspect not, but I don't know for certain.]
>
>(2) Is the author being humorous?

Vee authors are Cherman.  Vee don't make jokes.   :)

Seriously, given the publication site, I doubt they saw this as a
joke, but on the other hand, there were those scare quotes indicating
some awareness of cross-register transgression.

>With respect to "micturition", I haven't heard this outside medical
>terminology. In medicine, it is my impression that "micturition" refers
>exactly to the physiology of the normal emptying of the bladder, so that it
>is not exactly synonymous with "urination". For example, a man who has
>undergone cystectomy typically still has urination (via ileostomy,
>nephrostomy, or whatever) but he does not have micturition. I'm not sure
>that this distinction is always strictly observed even in medicine,
>however. One might consider an analogy such as: "micturition" is to
>"urination" as "emptying of the trash can" is to "trash disposal". I don't
>know much about entomologists' usage.
>
You're probably right about the distinction for some forms of
technical usage.   But I've seen "micturition" in product ads where
all that seems to have been intended is an elevated version of
"urination".    And with ants, who knows?

larry