free-swimming

[ free-swim-ing ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

adjective

, Zoology.

(of aquatic organisms) not attached to a base nor joined in a colony; capable of swimming about freely.

free-swimming

(of aquatic animals or larvae) not sessile or attached to any object and therefore able to swim freely in the water

First recorded in 1890–95

With but few exceptions sponges live in salt water and are never free swimming.

The first point in the development of Sycandra which deserves notice is the character of the free swimming larva.

At first they are little free-swimming creatures, feeding on foraminifers and other minute organisms that float about in the sea.

The same family contains the beautiful violet Ianthina, which also is not a British species, but a free-swimming oceanic snail.

Through these the eggs are discharged into the water, where they become free-swimming larv, called Pluteus.

Browse