The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cephalothorax \Ceph`a*lo*tho"rax\, n. [Cephalo- + thorax.] (Zo["o]l.) The anterior portion of any one of the Arachnida and higher Crustacea, consisting of the united head and thorax.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. (context anatomy English) The fused head and thorax of spiders and crustaceans.
Wikipedia
The cephalothorax, also called prosoma in some groups, is a tagma of various arthropods, comprising the head and the thorax fused together, as distinct from the abdomen behind. (The terms prosoma and opisthosoma are equivalent to cephalothorax and abdomen in some groups.) The word cephalothorax is derived from the Greek words for head (, ) and thorax (, ). This fusion of the head and thorax is seen in chelicerates and crustaceans; in other groups, such as the Hexapoda (including insects), the head remains free of the thorax. In horseshoe crabs and many crustaceans, a hard shell called the carapace covers the cephalothorax.
Usage examples of "cephalothorax".
It was twisted and wrapped sari-style around the neck, cephalothorax, abdomen, and upper portions of the legs and arms.
It was gray-brown with white circles on cephalothorax and abdomen and had shockingly red legs.
He darted aside, to the left, swinging again, aiming at the cephalothorax, the front section of the spider, expecting an immediate kill.
He knew the arachnid was divided into three basic parts: the cephalothorax, the front portion.
One of his long, sinewy pedipalps shot down from his cephalothorax and silenced the shrilling alert signal on his wraparound helm console.
The rhythmic expansion and contraction of the cephalothorax, the eight ruby-coloured eyes alight as if with intelligence, completed the illusion.
Curiously emotionless, the brats stamped in a frenzied dance—when they had finished, a random design of smashed cephalothoraxes and carapaces remained, like pressed orchids, scarcely visible on the black stone floor with its shining flecks.
The infrared sensory organ on its cephalothorax flushed as Belter's words crackled through the translator.
The huge black body, which was also encased in a jointed shell, like a wood louse, was circular, completely lacking the waistline that separates the cephalothorax from the abdomen in most spiders.