avicularium

American  

[uh-vik-yuh-lair-ee-uhm] / əˌvɪk yəˈlɛər i əm /

noun

Zoology.

plural

avicularia

1. a protective zooid of a bryozoan colony, having movable jaws that can be snapped shut.

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Other Word Forms

• avicularian adjective

Etymology

Origin of avicularium

From New Latin; avi-, -cule ¹, -arium

Example Sentences

Its peculiar characteristics are the perforated and striated scutiform area on the front of the cell and the perforated, or apparently perforated pyramidal lateral processes above each avicularium; these processes are much developed, and give the cell the form of a broad inverted shear-head.

From Project Gutenberg

In C. pumicosa the avicularium is placed subapically on a solitary posterior obtuse mucro, but in C. bilabiata there are two such processes longer and more pointed, one in front and the other behind the mouth; the avicularium, as in the former case, being placed immediately below the apex of the posterior mucro.

From Project Gutenberg

Cells arising one from the upper and back part of another by a short corneous tube, and disposed in a linear series, all facing the same way, and forming dichotomously divided branches of a phytoid polyzoary; cells geminate at the bifurcation of the branches; each cell furnished with two lateral processes usually supporting an avicularium.

From Project Gutenberg

The cell is furnished on each side at the top with a usually well-developed avicularium, in some species of huge size, and in some very minute, or entirely aborted.

From Project Gutenberg

This form of spine or cup--as the case may be, is always distinctly separated by a septum from the cavity of the avicularium itself.

From Project Gutenberg