calyptra

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. In bryophytes, a thin hood of tissue that forms from the archegonium and covers the developing sporophyte and is shed as it ripens.
  2. any cap-like covering of a flower or fruit, such as the operculum over the unopened buds of Eucalyptus flowers
  3. Any of various coverings at the tips of structures, in the terminology of various authors; for example rootcaps and the apical cells of trichomes.
  4. In flies such as the housefly, Musca, in the taxonomic order Diptera, zoological section Schizophora, subsection Calyptrata, the calyptra is a membranous rearward extension of the forewing; it covers the haltere.

Word forms

calyptra calyptras calyptrae

Etymology

From Ancient Greek καλύπτρα (kalúptra, “covering or veiling”).

Derived words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.