semelparousadj.
/ˈsɛməlpərəs/ Biology.
Of or designating a species or organism which reproduces only once during its lifetime. Cf. iteroparous adj.
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semelparous1954
monotelic1962
1954 L. C. Cole in Q. Rev. Biol. 29 118/1 Nearly all annual plants and animals, as well as many protozoa, bacteria, insects, and some perennial forms such as century plants and the Pacific salmon, are semelparous species.
1966 G. C. Williams Adaptation & Natural Selection vi. 175 The origin of semelparous life cycles is one aspect of the evolution of aging.
1970 Amer. Naturalist 104 8 Among the perennial organisms the two strikingly different kinds of life-history strategies are the repeated reproducers, or iteroparous organisms, and the big-bang reproducers, or semelparous organisms.
1984 Nature 26 July 271/2 These plants [sc. some purported biennials] are more properly described as semelparous (single-reproducing) perennials.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1993; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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adj.1954