orbicula

English

Etymology

Diminutive of orbicle.

Noun

orbicula (plural orbiculas or orbiculae)

  1. A dorsal sclerite over a hymenopteran arolium; a hard exoskeletal feature with species-specific shape that overhangs and protects the adhesive tip of such an insect's leg and around which the claw(s) curl.[1] Abbreviation "or" or "rb".
  2. (zoology, dated) A discina (brachiopod).

References

“orbicula”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

  1. ^ Richard T. Holway (March 1935) “Preliminary Note on the Structure of the Pretarsus and its Possible Phylogenetic Significance”, in Psyche: A Journal of Entomology‎[1], volume XLII, number 1: “Oricula. In Hymenoptera, a small dorsal sclerite at the base of the arolium and distad of the unguifer. The orbicula is quite variable as to size and shape in this order and may be of taxonomic value.”

Anagrams

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.