plagiostomy

English

Etymology

plagio- +‎ stoma +‎ -y

Noun

plagiostomy

1. (biology) An adaptation in which the mouth is diminished, firmly closed, and located on the ventral side protected deeply within a carapace.
   • 1922, Proceedings of the Section of Sciences - Volume 25, page 375:

     From its original subcerebral position (orthognathism) it shifts into a precerebral position (proguathism). That in connection with this rotation plagiostomy changes into teleostomy we will pass over in silence, although this phenomenon would give amble scope for interesting observations.

   • 1991, Biology Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, page 279:

     They are comparatively large, without outgrowths, of a rounded shape, with a flattened ventral surface and cryptostomy or plagiostomy with a lip.

   • 2012, A Burgers, Soil Biology, page 170:

     Two other morphological features, plagiostomy and cryptostomy, are considered to be adaptations to life in soil; both involve a reduction in the size of the pseudostome in proportion to the test and the formation of a vestibule (Fig. 11) and both tend, therefore, to protect the cell against dessicaation (Bonnet, 1961a, 1964).