alula
Americannoun
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Also called spurious wing. Also called bastard wing. the group of three to six small, rather stiff feathers growing on the first digit, pollex, or thumb of a bird's wing.
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a membranous lobe at the base of each wing of a dipterous insect.
noun
Other Word Forms
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Nouns
Etymology
Origin of alula
1765–75; < New Latin, equivalent to Latin āl ( a ) wing + -ula -ule
Vocabulary lists containing alula
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Then it opens a slot by moving the alula.
From Time Magazine Archive
They have a movable feather called an "alula," which usually rests against the leading edge.
From Time Magazine Archive
We make our way among a density of exotic plants, an endangered Hawaiian plant called alula, a cacao tree, conifers and vines that trap insects.
From Time Magazine Archive
Squamula: a small corneous scale covering the base of primaries in some insects: = tegula, q.v.: in Diptera, = alula.
From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by Smith, John. B.
Lobulus: the partly separated portion of the wings of some flies and of secondaries in some Hymenoptera: also used as = alula; q.v.
From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by Smith, John. B.
But how can you be absolutely sure that they don’t have alulae in the reconstruction?
From Scientific American ● May 15, 2012
As for alulae – based on Eoalulavis and other taxa, you’re right.
From Scientific American ● May 15, 2012
Well, they look exactly like gulls with lengthened legs and… no alulae.
From Scientific American ● May 15, 2012
Acalyptrata: those muscid flies in which alulae are absent or rudimentary.
From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by Smith, John. B.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
