alloscutum
alloscutum noun: the flexible part of the dorsal body wall behind the rigid scutum in a hard tick, particularly a female — the alloscutum is the part of the body wall that must stretch to accommodate the blood that the tick swallows when it engorges in preparation for laying eggs.
Noun
alloscutum (plural alloscuta)
- the flexible part of the dorsal body wall behind the rigid scutum in a hard tick, particularly a female — the alloscutum is the part of the body wall that must stretch to accommodate the blood that the tick swallows when it engorges in preparation for laying eggs.
- Powerful muscle groups are also present in the alloscutum of the female, nymphal, and larval Ixodid ticks, through which the tick is able to redistribute the centre of gravity and regain an upright position when it falls into an upside-down position.2008, Heinz Mehlhorn, Encyclopedia of Parasitology, →ISBN
Forms of alloscutum
| plural | alloscuta |
|---|
Origin of alloscutum
From Ancient Greek ἄλλος (állos, “other”) and from Latin scūtum (“shield”).
Questions about alloscutum
- What does alloscutum mean?
- Alloscutum means the flexible part of the dorsal body wall behind the rigid scutum in a hard tick, particularly a female — the alloscutum is the part of the body wall that must stretch to accommodate the blood that the tick swallows when it engorges in preparation for laying eggs.
- What part of speech is alloscutum?
- Alloscutum is a noun.
- What is the plural of alloscutum?
- The plural of alloscutum is alloscuta.
Words near alloscutum in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: alloscutum (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “alloscutum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/alloscutum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.