Weird and wonderful wildlife words

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I was reading about a dragonfly on the Web and came across the a very strange word to describe the blue colour of the Broad-bodied Chaser.

Pruinose - appearing covered with fine dust or coarse powder, but which cannot be rubbed off.

What an education.

Anybody else got any?

[Deb London]

Here' a new one on me.

Thigmotaxis - directional movement of an organism towards areas offering more physical contact.

For example:

Bedbugs avoid the light and are thigmotactic: they love contact with rough surfaces.

[STYRBJORN]

Not exactly wildlife but a wonderful biological word for "cold-blooded" animals:- poikilothermic.

Ric

[tcvarlh]

I have two that appeal to me :

Immortalizing oncogene : A gene that upon transfection enables a primary cell to grow indefinitely in culture.
Not truly Wildlife again, but the concept is fascinating and the term clever.

andromonoecious : Describing a plant which bears both bisexual and solely male flowers on the same plant.
A very confused plant, obviously has identity 'issues'

[Endrick]

imago: an insect in it's final mature state

[STYRBJORN]

I still remember the names of the segments of an insect's leg from Biology A-level in 1966.

Coxa, Trochanter, Femur, Tibia, Tarsus.

Lovely swing to it. Say it out loud!

Ric

[STYRBJORN]

Just found another in here! Resupinate. OCD gives "(of a leaf, flower, fruiting body) upside down.

[Dorts]

Megasporangium (the sporangia having bearing megaspores).
Sounds rather rude and very painful to me!
Dorts.

[Monkey Orchid]

Not sure if this is an actual word... If it isn't, it should be:

dendrolatry = a reverence for trees

[Deb London]

Originally Posted by Monkey Orchid

Not sure if this is an actual word... If it isn't, it should be:

dendrolatry = a reverence for trees

Ha, ha! Yes.

My word for today:

Saproxylic: pertaining or related to dead or decaying wood.