calyptra
noun
Forms calyptras calyptrae
- noun (botany) In bryophytes, a thin hood of tissue that forms from the archegonium and covers the developing sporophyte and is shed as it ripens.
- noun (botany) any cap-like covering of a flower or fruit, such as the operculum over the unopened buds of Eucalyptus flowers
- noun (botany) Any of various coverings at the tips of structures, in the terminology of various authors; for example rootcaps and the apical cells of trichomes.
- noun (entomology) In flies such as the housefly, Musca, in the taxonomic order Diptera, zoological section Schizophora, subsection Calyptrata, the calyptra is a membranous rearward extension of the forewing; it covers the haltere.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek καλύπτρα (kalúptra, “covering or veiling”).
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “calyptra”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details