The word "蚁后" is formed by combining the character "蚁", meaning ant, which itself consists of the insect radical "虫" indicating its category and the component "义" suggesting its pronunciation, with the character "后", meaning queen or empress, which denotes the female ruler role. Together, they create a compound term where "蚁" specifies the insect type and "后" specifies the leadership position, directly resulting in the meaning "queen ant".