meroisticadj.
/ˌmɛrəʊˈɪstɪk/, U.S. /ˌmɛrəˈwɪstɪk/, /ˌmɛroʊˈɪstɪk/ Chiefly Entomology.
Designating or relating to an ovary or ovariole which produces nurse cells as well as ova. Contrasted with panoistic.
ΚΠ
1877 T. H. Huxley Man. Anat. Invertebrated Animals vii. 443 Dr. A. Brandt has proposed the term panoistic for ovaries of the first mode, and meroistic for those of the second and third modes of development of the ova here described.
1888 G. Rolleston & W. H. Jackson Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) p. xxiii (note) An ovary in which every ovarian cell becomes an egg, may be termed panoistic; one in which some only become eggs,..meroistic.
1957 O. W. Richards & R. G. Davies Imms's Gen. Textbk. Entomol. (ed. 9) i. 185 Types (b) and (c) [of ovarioles] are often grouped as one type—meroistic, which is characterized by the presence of nutritive cells.
1993 Nature 4 Feb. 401/2 Tribolium (like other beetles, and dipterans such as Drosophila) has meroistic oogenesis, with the oocyte provisioned by anterior nurse cells.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1877