meconidium

plural meconidia

1. biologyA kind of gonophore produced by hydroids of the genus Gonothyraea (Campanulariidae), having tentacles, and otherwise resembling a free medusa, but remaining attached by a pedicel.

   After the meconidium wall has been removed, the eggs often remain adherent to the blastostyle endoderm

   1973, “Publications of the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)

   1 more example

   These appear as sessile medusæ resting on the top of the gonangium, there being usually two or three such structures on the top of each gonangium. These meconidia are formed very much as ordinary gonophores on the blastostyle within the gonangium, appearing at first as mere hernia-like protrusions of the latter and several appearing in different stages of development on the same blastostyle.

   1900, Charles Cleveland Nutting, American Hydroids: The Campanularidae and the Bonneviellidae