These are Several meanings:
Opening in the eggshell that is preformed during the processes of eggshell formation in some platyhelminthic species (e.g., most Digenea, some Monogenea, Heterophyes heterophyes , Diphyllobothrium); the eggs become operculate; several related species (e.g., schistosomes, Taenia ) have nonoperculate eggs, the wall of which becomes disrupted during hatch of the larva (Platyhelminthes/Reproductive Organs).
Other meanings are:
- 1.
Cover of eggs of insects, which opens, when larva leaves the egg, e.g., lice.
- 2.
Plate at the ventral side of mites to cover the sexual opening in some species.
- 3.
Plate at the terminal side of the foot of snails, which may close the shell.
- 4.
Portion of the human brain.
- 5.
Cover of the Bryozoan brood chamber.
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© 2016 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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(2016). Operculum. In: Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Parasitology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43978-4_2222
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43978-4_2222
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