dactylus

plural dactyli

1. Synonym of dactyl (“type of metrical foot”).

   Synonyms: dactyl

2. marine biologyThe tip of a cephalopod's tentacle club.

   […] suckers of carpus and dactylus portions small […]

   2001 June 28, N. Neethiselvan, “A new species of cuttlefish Sepia ramani sp. nov. (Class: Cephalopoda) from Tuticorin Bay, southeast coast of India”, in Indian Journal of Marine Sciences, volume 30, number 2, pages 81–86

   1 more example

   The distal end of the club, the dactylus (finger), is pointed and attenuated but is covered with hundreds of small suckers.

   1982 April 28, Clyde F.E. Roper, Kenneth J. Boss, “The Giant Squid”, in Scientific American, volume 246, number 4, →JSTOR, pages 96–105

3. The tip of a crustacean's leg.

   Pereiopod 1 […] dactylus with 3 pointed processes on posterior margin (Fig. 2g).

   2001 April 28, Charles Oliver Coleman, Ines Jäger, “Acanthonotozomella rauscherti (Amphipoda, Acanthonotozomellidae), a new species from the Antarctic Ocean”, in Journal of Crustacean Biology, volume 21, number 2, →DOI, pages 475–483

   1 more example

   The tip of the dactylus is short and hooked, with a scoop-shaped depression on the anterior surface.

   1975 November 28, Takahiro Fujino, “Fine features of the dactylus of the ambulatory pereiopods in a bivalve-associated shrimp, Anschistus miersi (De Man), under the scanning electron microscope (Decapoda, Natantia, Pontoniinae)”, in Crustaceana, volume 29, number 3, →DOI, pages 252–254