mid-bodyn.adj.

1600 J. Pory tr. J. Leo Africanus Geogr. Hist. Afr. Introd. 40 The elephant..will stande vp to the mid-body therein, bathing the ridge of his backe, and other parts with his long promuscis or trunke.

1882 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 173 116 Eight somites of the mid-body with appendages.

1883 Science 21 Dec. 791/1 Malacostraca, with the mid-body and abdomen compressed.

1890 Cent. Dict. Midbody, in Mollusca, the mesosoma.

1915 E. R. Lankester Diversions of Naturalist 103 Jointless mid-body or hind-body.

1927 F. Balfour-Browne Insects i. 10 The body segments of the Arthropods are grouped together to form recognisable parts, a number together forming a head, others together forming a mid-body or thorax, and the remainder forming the abdomen.

1942 Amer. Midland Naturalist 27 169 The snake turned and bit its adversary at about midbody.

1971 J. W. Steward Snakes of Europe v. 121 The scales [of the Eastern Montpellier snake] are usually in 17 rows at mid-body.

1997 T. Pynchon Mason & Dixon xxxvii. 379 Thugs who approach'd me in the Street were suddenly struck in mid-Body vigorously enough to throw them.

1896 E. B. Wilson Cell ii. 52 A similar cell-plate occurs in some animal cells; but it is often greatly reduced, and may form only a minute body known as the mid-body (Zwischenkörper), which lies between the two cells after their division.

1900 Bot. Gaz. 30 81 The spindle portion (plaque fusoriale) of Carnoy is undoubtedly the midbody (Zwischenkörper) subsequently described by Flemming and others.

1969 W. V. Brown & E. M. Bertke Textbk. Cytol. xix. 417/1 The portions of the continuous [spindle] fibers where cytokinesis is to occur, become thickened to form the mid-body, ‘stem body’ of Belar, or ‘Flemming body’ which has been seen in cytokinesis of other animals, including Hydra.

1993 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 90 8407/2 Analyses of mitotic cells revealed..structural components of microtubule-organizing centers, including the centrosome, midbody, centromeres, and chromosomal arms.

1931 Q. Rev. Biol. 6 2/2 (caption) Schematic section through the midbody region of a young embryo.

1937 Ecol. Monogr. 7 258 Ovary posterior to testes; caeca extend to midbody length.

1957 J. Bishop Day Christ Died (1959) 68 Over that was a baldinajja, a full-length linen dress; then..a mid-body scarf referred to as the pirzomata.

1965 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 95 215 Measurements in inches in the following order..; width of waist (narrowest point of the mid-body region); [etc.].

1996 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 263 684/1 It will be interesting to see where the Bougainville population [of skinks], which differs in midbody scale rows, falls with respect to the Guadalcanal and Malaita ‘species’.