autocolony

plural autocolonies

1. biologyA daughter colony formed inside a cell of a parent colony.

   Autocolonies of 8 cells were occasional, and of 4 cells quite frequent.

   1929, University of Pennsylvania. Botanical Laboratory, Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory and the Morris Arboretum, page 168

   2 more examples

   This may be because the formation of autocolonies within the mother cell wall is a considerable advance over the condition of free-lying spherical cells, and because along with the development of this autocolonial habit there has gone almost necessarily an axial differentiation of the individual cells.

   1914, Gilbert Morgan Smith, The Organization of the Colony in Certain Four-celled Coenobic Algae, page 1175

   This fact is of considerable interest as it shows how the autocolonies of certain of the Autosporaceæ may have arisen.

   1916, George Stephen West, Algæ, page 219