midstripe

Noun

midstripe (plural midstripes)

1. A stripe-like marking that runs down the center of a living thing, such as a flower petal or an insect's body.
   • the flight is sometimes more than 4" broad, the body is 2" long; upper-wings brown with white at the point and the posterior margin, hind-wings rose red with grey brown margin, and three black transverse stripes; abdomen red above with a brown mid-stripe and black rings.1856, J. VAN DER HOEVEN, translated by REV. WILLIAM CLARK, HANDBOOK OF ZOOLOGY, volume 1, page 406
   • Female.— Very similar to male, the front broad with a semishining midstripe connecting the shiny black antennal prominence with the opaque black of the ocellar area; pile of the black areas black, becoming brown below.1949, Charles L. Fluke, “SOME ALASKAN SYRPHID FLIES WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES”, in PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, volume 100, number 3256, Smithsonian Institution, page 50