foundress

1. (dated) A female founder (“one who founds or establishes”).Examples: "But whether he departed without the French kings conſent or diſaſſent, he deceiued in his expectacion, and in maner in diſpaire, retourned againe to the Lady Margaret his firſt fooliſh foundreſſe."; "Forgetfull of himſelfe, his bearth, his Country, friends, and all, / And onely minding (vvhom he miſt) the Foundreſſe of his thrall."; "He humbly louted in meeke lovvlineſſe, / And ſeemely vvelcome for her did prepare: / For of their order ſhe vvas Patroneſſe, / Albe Chariſſa vvere their chiefeſt foundereſſe."dated

2. (zoology, specifically) A female animal which establishes a colony.Examples: "[T]he comparison of multiple inseminations and multiple foundress associations showed that the number of foundresses, a component of migration structure, affects the potential for social evolution more strongly than the number of inseminations per foundress, a component of the mating structure."; "When two [European paper wasp] foundresses meet at the nest site after hibernation, the foundress with the higher corpus allatum activity usually becomes dominant."; "Like many vertebrate cooperative breeders, foundress associations of paper wasps are composed of individuals of varying relatedness (typically full sisters, cousins, and unrelated individuals;[…]), […] However there is also very clear helping behaviour: subordinate foundresses hunt for caterpillars and other insect food to provision the offspring of the dominant female."specifically