Obelian.
/əʊˈbiːlɪə/, U.S. /oʊˈbiljə/, /oʊˈbiliə/ Zoology.
A colony-forming marine coelenterate of the genus Obelia (class Hydrozoa); (also) the genus itself.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Diploblastica > phylum Coelenterata > [noun] > class Hydrozoa > member of genus Obelia
Obelia1868
1868 T. Hincks Hist. Brit. Hydroid Zoophytes I. 148 Some of his [sc. Edward Forbes's] species are only various stages of one and the same Obelia.
1884 Amer. Naturalist 18 89 M. Mérejowsky has contributed to the Bulletin of the French Zoölogical Society an account of the development of Obelia.
1897 T. J. Parker & W. A. Haswell Text-bk. Zool. I. iv. 118 Obelia is a common zoophyte occurring in the form of a delicate, whitish or light brown, almost fur-like growth on the wooden piles of piers and wharfs.
1927 J. B. S. Haldane & J. S. Huxley Animal Biol. ix. 179 If an ordinary hydroid polyp like Obelia be kept in the laboratory, the hydranths, or separate organized individuals of the colony, will (unless the water is well aerated artificially) show a curious series of changes.
1953 Evolution 7 26/1 In such colonial hydroids as the common species of Obelia, both kinds of reproduction occur.
1974 A. Silverstein Biol. Sci. 178/2 Obelia, a typical colonial coelenterate, has a number of specialized feeding polyps and reproductive polyps, growing in a branchlike arrangement.
1994 E. E. Ruppert & R. D. Barnes Invertebr. Zool. (ed. 6) iv. 122/1 Such a life cycle, with a free-swimming medusoid generation as well as a colonial polypoid stage, is displayed by Obelia..and other hydrozoan genera.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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