Statoblast
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statoblast
[′stad·ə‚blast] (invertebrate zoology)
A chitin-encapsulated body which serves as a special means of asexual reproduction in the Phylactolaemata.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Statoblast
a dormant winter bud in freshwater bryozoans. Statoblasts develop within the mesogastrium and are internal buds (in contrast to external buds from which colonies are formed). They have a tough outer coat, sometimes with hooklike excrescences, and most commonly are lenticular in shape. When the maternal organism dies in the autumn, statoblasts drop from its body and, owing to the presence of air chambers, float in the water. The coat of the statoblast bursts open in the spring, and from it emerges a young bryozoan, the progenitor of a new colony.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.