telsonn.
/ˈtɛlsən/ Zoology.
The last segment of the abdomen or its median axis in certain crustaceans and arachnidans, as the middle flipper of a lobster's tail-fin, the long sharp spine of the king-crab, or the sting of the scorpion.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > [noun] > member of > parts of > posterior portion or abdomen > last segment of abdomen
telson1855
1855 C. Spence Bate in Brit. Assoc. Rep. 28 The last [appendage of the abdomen], which for convenience we shall designate by the name of Telson,..is a rudimentary appendage, modified upon the type of the preceding three.
1872 H. A. Nicholson Man. Palæontol. 144 The last segment of the abdomen is known as the ‘telson’, and it is variously regarded as a somite without appendages, or as an unpaired appendage placed in the middle line of the body.
1880 T. H. Huxley Crayfish i. 19 The abdomen [has] a terminal flap which is called the telson.
Derivatives
telˈsonic adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > [adjective] > of parts of > belonging or attached to abdomen > of or relating to telson
telsonic1934
1934 in Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang.
1946 Nature 28 Dec. 935/2 The caudal segment was probably composed of the sixth abdominal segment with which the telson had become fused, and thus these appendages must be telsonic.
1981 Israel Jrnl. Zool. 30 115 The more primitive Hyssuridae have no telsonic statocysts.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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n.1855