: a genus (the type of the family Colpodidae) of small flattened reniform holotrichous freshwater ciliates
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from New Latin, feminine noun based on Greek kolpṓdēs "enclosing, embayed, sinuous," from kólpos "bosom, lap, fold in a garment, womb" + -ōdēs "like, having the nature of"
Note: Genus name introduced by the Danish naturalist Otto Friedrich Müller (1730-84) in Vermium terrestrium et fluviatilium, seu, Animalium infusoriorum, helminthicorum et testaceorum … succincta historia, vol. 1, part 1 (Copenhagen & Leipzig, 1773), p. 58. See note at Colpidium .