musciform

comparative more musciform · superlative most musciform

1. biologyHaving the appearance or form of a moss.

   The surface had an irregular, musciform quality, interrupted by various ridges and valleys.

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   8. Native Gold, of a bright gold-yellow colour, in musciform leaves, upon saxum metalliferum; from the same place (very rich.)

   1832, Carl Ludwig Giesecke, A Descriptive Catalogue of a New Collection of Minerals in the Museum of the Royal Dublin Society, Dublin: R. Graisberry, page 129

   ...they connect with the theciferous, partly "peristomiate," and radiately divided (hence musciform) group of fungi...

   1871, Theodore Hilgard, “Investigations on the Development of the Yeast, or Zymotic Fungus.”, in Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Nineteenth Meeting), Cambridge, Massachusetts: Joseph Lovering, page 310

   Kelleria and Drapetes are humble subshrubby and caespitose, musciform plants, with sessile and imbricate leaves.

   1880, Henri Baillon, The Natural History of Plants, volume VI, London: L. Reeve & Co., page 118

comparative more musciform · superlative most musciform

1. Having the form or structure of flies of the genus Musca or family Muscidae.

   The insect had a distinctly musciform appearance, although its shiny, golden colouration was altogether more agreeable.

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   Larva.—Length, 7–9 mm. White, head black. General shape musciform, tapered anteriorly, blunt posteriorly.

   1918, J. R. Malloch, “A Preliminary Classification of Diptera, Exclusive of Pupipara, Based upon Larval and Pupal Characters”, in Bulletin of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, volume XII, Urbana, page 401

   They hatch out into musciform larvae which feed upon the nutriment collected by the bees for their own larvae.

   1925, A. D. Imms, A General Textbook of Entomology, London: Methuen & Co., page 657

   In many musciform flies the first two segments are also fused...

   1965, Fritz Zumpt, Myiasis in Man and Animals in the Old World: A Textbook for Physicians, Veterinarians, and Zoologists, Butterworths, page 8