wunder · Library

Part 112

Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology · John Bernhard Smith — chapter 112 of 164 · ~282 words · public domain

Read in the Wunder reader — free

Poisers: = halteres and balancers; q.v.

Poison glands: sometimes applied to the salivary glands of bugs and biting flies; more usually to an abdominal gland connected with the sting of female Hymenoptera.

Policate: a tibia produced inwardly into a short, bent spine or thumb.

Politus: smooth, shiny, polished.

Pollen: a dusty or pruinose surface covering which is easily rubbed off; used mostly in Diptera.

Pollen-plate: a polished area margined by hair, on the outer face of the tibia in bees.

Pollex: a thumb: the stout fixed spur at inside of tip of tibia.

Pollicatus: = policate; q.v.

Polliniferous: formed for collecting pollen: pollen bearing.

Pollinigerous: = polliniferous: q.v.

Pollinose: covered with a yellow, pollen-like dust.

Poly-: many, much.

Polyandry: where a female mates with more than one male.

Polychromatic: many colored.

Polydomous: applied to ants when one colony has several nests.

Polyembryony: the production of several embryos from a single egg, as in some Chalcids.

Polygamy: where a male mates with more than one female.

Polygonal: with many angles.

Polygoneutism: the power to preduce several broods in one season.

Polymorpha: the claviform and serricorn Coleoptera, as a whole.

Polymorphic-ous: occurring in several forms; differing in sex, In season, in locality or without apparent reason: undergoing Several changes, and in this sense applied to insects with a complete metamorphosis.

Polynephria: applied to insects with many urinary (Malpighian) tubes.

Polyphagous: eating many kinds of food.

Polyphyletic: derived or descended from several stems or sources.

Polypodous: having many feet, and thus, specifically applied to the Myriapoda, and to the larvae of Lepidoptera and saw-flies, in contradistinction to footless and hexapodous larvae.

Ponderable: that which may be weighed.

Pone: behind (the middle).

Ponticulus: = frenulum; q.v.

← Previous chapterAll chaptersNext chapter →

Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology · The Wunder Library — complete classics, free to read, with narration.

© 2026 Wunder Learning LLC · Terms & Privacy