noun
definition
A strap or strap-shaped object, especially such a development in plants or insects.
Examples of ligula in a Sentence
The inner lobe (lacinia) of the first maxilla terminates in an articulated hook, while in the second maxillae (labium) both inner and outer lobes ("ligula" and "para-glossae") are much Gyrinus sulcatus reduced.
In specialized biting insects, such as beetles (Coleo C ptera), the labium tends to become a hard transverse plate bearing the pair of palps, a median structure - known as the ligula - formed of the conjoined laciniae, and a pair of small rounded processes - the reduced galeae - often called the " paraglossae," a term better avoided since it has been applied also to the maxillulae of Aptera, entirety different structures.
The long sucking " tongue " of bees is probably a modification of the ligula.
Ia, frons; b, clypeus (the pointed labrum beneath it); II, mandible; III, first maxilla; (a, base; b, sheath; c, piercer), III', inner view of sheath; IV, second maxillae forming rostrum (b, mentum; c, ligula).
Ligula, unsegmented externally, occurs in birds.
The tenth abdominal segment carries a pair of jointed cerci which are often elongate, and the feelers are always long, while the jaws are usually feeble and membranous, though the typical parts of a mandibulate mouth are present - mandibles, maxillae with inner and outer lobes and palps, and second maxillae (labium) whose lacinae are not fused to form a ligula.
Structurally the Neuroptera are distinguished by elongate feelers, a large, free prothorax, a labium with the inner lobes of the second maxillae fused together to form a median ligula, membranous, net-veined wings without hairy covering, those of the two pairs being usually alike, the absence of abdominal cerci, and the presence of six or eight Malpighian tubes.
Its leaves have each a long sheath encircling the stem, and at the junction of the blade or "flag" with the sheath a small whitish outgrowth or "ligula."
Management and Business & Administration NVQs Maecenas sodales posuere ligula.