nauplius

plural nauplii · plural naupliuses

1. biologyA crustacean larva that has three pairs of locomotive organs (corresponding to antennules, antennae, and mandibles), a median eye, and little or no segmentation of the body.First known use mid 19th c.

   The copepod nauplii concentrations were significantly different among stations and by depth (Appendices 3 and 4).

   2001, Naureen A. Qureshi, Nancy N. Rabalais, “Distribution of Zooplankton on a Seasonally Hypoxic Continental Shelf”, in Nancy N. Rabalais, R[obert] Eugene Turner, editors, Coastal Hypoxia: Consequences for Living Resources and Ecosystems (Coastal and Estuarine Studies; 58), Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union, →ISBN, page 72

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   The oval body, with the abdomen not yet differentiated, and bearing no limbs; the (usually) three pairs of limbs, representing the first and second antennæ and mandibles of the adult, together with the single eye, are the distinguishing characteristics of the nauplius stage.

   1870 November 16, A[lpheus] S[pring] Packard, “The Development of Limulus Polyphemus”, in Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, volume II, Boston, Mass.: Boston Society of Natural History, published 1872, →OCLC, page 163

   Here is an embryo, or young form, which has just escaped from the egg, and is hurrying off seawards to "see life," without doubt, and to begin life in earnest as well. You now behold a little body, which, roughly described, we shall say has a triangular shape. It has a tail behind, and the shield or "shell" with which the little body is covered, is prolonged in front and at its side-angles or corners into spines or horns. Three pairs of feet, or appendages that resemble these organs, are possessed by the infant barnacle, the two hinder pairs being forked at their tips and provided with long bristles. A single eye appears in front of the two foremost "feet;" and a mouth, stomach, and intestine are discovered within this little body. Thus provided within and without, this little Cyclopean creature swims merrily through the sea. In this stage it is universally named the Nauplius.

   1877, Andrew Wilson, “Some Animal Histories”, in Robert Brown, editor, Science for All, volume I, London; Paris; New York, N.Y.: Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., →OCLC, page 80, column 1

   Fairy-shrimps are primitive crustaceans, most of which live in temporary ponds, roadside ditches, or marshes that dry up in sumer. They lay thick-walled eggs that withstand summer drying and winter freezing, lying dormant in the mud until they hatch out as naupliuses when wetted by the first heavy spring rain.

   1987, Ralph [Morris] Buchsbaum, Mildred Buchsbaum, John Pearse, Vicki Pearse, “Lobsters and Other Arthropods: Crustaceans”, in Animals without Backbones, 3rd edition, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 345

   It is not certain that phaseluses are trilobites and not naupliuses of crustaceans or an extinct group of arthropods that has yet to be recognized.

   1997, Roger L[eroy] Kaesler, editor, Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology: Part O, Arthropoda 1, Trilobita Revised, revised edition, volume 1 (Introduction, Order Agnostida, Order Redlichiida), Boulder, Colo.: Geological Society of America; Lawrence, Kan.: University of Kansas, →ISBN, page 187, column 2

   I suggest that several species of nauplioids hybridized with representatives of several groups of arthropods to give them nauplius larvae. […] The occurrence of nauplius larvae in crustacean taxa appears to be almost random, and it bears little relationship to adult morphology or to evolutionary history. This is consistent with the proposal that nauplii were acquired independently and at various times, and it challenge the widely held view that nauplii played a fundamental role in crustacean evolution.

   2003, Donald I[rving] Williamson, “Arthopods”, in The Origins of Larvae, revised edition, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, →ISBN, page 172

1. Greekhuman sciencesA son of the god Poseidon by Amymone, daughter of Danaus, and founder of the city of Nauplia.
2. Greekhuman sciencesA descendant of the founder of Nauplia who ruled the city (alternatively, Euboea), was one of the Argonauts, and was father to Palamedes, who fought in the Trojan War.

   A scene from Aristophanes' Women at the Thesmophoria (765-84) preserves a parody of the event which featured Palamedes' brother Oeax writing a message on oars in the hope that one will reach his father Nauplius with news of the betrayal and murder.

   2013, Isabelle Torrance, Metapoetry in Euripides, page 145

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   But according to Lycophron, the last of the Greek poets, Penelope committed adultery with one of the suitors at the persuasion of the aged Nauplius, who avenged the death of his son Palamedes by enticing almost all the wives of the Greeks into prostitution.

   2003, Giovanni Boccaccio, translated by Virginia Brown, Famous Women, page 81