strobilate

present singular third person strobilates · participle present strobilating · participle past strobilated · past strobilated

1. intransitivebiologyTo produce a strobile, a cone-shaped life form that is a stage of asexual reproduction that some invertebrates pass through.

   These, in turn, reproduce by cloning; when conditions are right, they ‘strobilate’, elongating and splitting into a stack of discs which develop into larvae, and break away to become medusae.

   2014, Theo Tait, “Water-Borne Zombies”, in London Review of Books, volume 36, number 5

   1 more example

   "Strobilation is like: All right, the male jellyfish releases his sperm into the water and the female jellyfish, her eggs catch them, right? So, when they fuse, it turns into a little polyp. The polyp hooks on to a rock, and the temperature and different types of food make the polyp grow faster. So that’s what we try to do, make them strobilate faster."

   2007 September 16, Saki Knafo, quoting Neil Allicock, “My Family Has High Hopes for Me Because They Know I’m Going to Do Great Things”, in The New York Times