Pupae

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Pupa \Pu"pa\, n.; pl. L. {Pup[ae]}, E. {Pupas}. [L. pupa girl.
     doll, puppet, fem. of pupus. Cf. {Puppet}.]
     1. (Zool.) Any insect in that stage of its metamorphosis
        which usually immediately precedes the adult, or imago,
        stage.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     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.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Zool.) A genus of air-breathing land snails having an
        elongated spiral shell.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {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.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  pupa
       n : an insect in the inactive stage of development (when it is
           not feeding) intermediate between larva and adult
       [also: {pupae} (pl)]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  pupae
       See {pupa}