PUPA • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Pupa

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noun

Pupa n. (pl. L. pupae, E. pupas)

(Zool.) Any insect in that stage of its metamorphosis which usually immediately precedes the adult, or imago, stage. Note: Among insects belonging to the higher orders, as the Hymenoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, the pupa is inactive and takes no food; in the lower orders it is active and takes food, and differs little from the imago except in the rudimentary state of the sexual organs, and of the wings in those that have wings when adult. The term pupa is sometimes applied to other invertebrates in analogous stages of development.

(Zool.) A genus of air-breathing land snails having an elongated spiral shell.

Coarctate pupa, or Obtected pupa, a pupa which is incased in the dried-up skin of the larva, as in many Diptera.

Masked pupa, a pupa whose limbs are bound down and partly concealed by a chitinous covering, as in Lepidoptera.

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Etymology of 'Pupa'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pupa" Quotes from Famous Books

... leave the tree-trunk by his unaided efforts. It therefore falls to the worm, to the wisdom of that bit of an intestine, to prepare the way for him. We see renewed, in another form, the feats of prowess of the Anthrax, whose pupa, armed with trepans, bores through rock on the feeble Fly's behalf. Urged by a presentiment that to us remains an unfathomable mystery, the Cerambyx-grub leaves the inside of the oak, its peaceful retreat, ...

— The Wonders of Instinct • J. H. Fabre

... shows the high development of their psychical or emotional nature. In the tender watchfulness and care of their young they are surpassed by no living creature. As soon as the young ant bursts its pupa case, it is carefully assisted into the world by its foster-mothers. These foster-mothers clean it with their tongues, gently going over the entire surface of its body, and then feed it. The young ant is conducted by them throughout the whole nest, and shown all the devious passageways and corridors. ...

— The Dawn of Reason - or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals • James Weir

Words linked to "Pupa" : pupate, chrysalis, pupal, insect