noun
definition
The upper or dorsal surface of an articulated animal such as an arthropod.
Examples of tergum in a Sentence
This telson may enlarge, it may possibly even become internally and sternally developed as partially separate somites, and the tergum may remain without trace of somite formation, or, as appears to be the case in Limulus, the telson gives rise to a few well-marked somites (mesosoma and two others) and then enlarges without further trace of segmentation, whilst the chitinous integument which develops in increasing thickness on the terga as growth advances welds together the unsegmented telson and the somites in front of it, which were previ ously marked by separate tergal thickenings.
Four pairs of appendages besides these are seen to belong to the cephalic tergum.
I, Sternite of the genital or first opisthosomatic somite; the prae-genital somite, though represented by a tergum, has no separate sternal plate.
In the Entomobryidae the body is elongate and clearly segmented, but the dorsal region (tergum) of the prothorax is much reduced and the head downwardly directed; the spring is well developed.
In the Achorutidae the head is forwardly directed, the tergum of the prothorax conspicuous, and the spring small or vestigial.
A dorsal and a ventral plate are often distinguished, known respectively as the tergum and the sternum, and the tergum may overhang the insertion of the limb on each side as a free plate called the pleuron.