Crossword clues for volvox
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Volvox \Vol"vox\, n. (Bot.) A genus of minute, pale-green, globular, organisms, about one fiftieth of an inch in diameter, found rolling through water, the motion being produced by minute colorless cilia. It has been considered as belonging to the flagellate Infusoria, but is now referred to the vegetable kingdom, and each globule is considered a colony of many individuals. The commonest species is Volvox globator, often called globe animalcule.
Animalcule \An`i*mal"cule\, n. [As if fr. a L. animalculum, dim. of animal.]
A small animal, as a fly, spider, etc. [Obs.]
--Ray.-
(Zo["o]l.) An animal, invisible, or nearly so, to the naked eye. See Infusoria.
Note: Many of the so-called animalcules have been shown to be plants, having locomotive powers something like those of animals. Among these are Volvox, the Desmidiac[ae], and the siliceous Diatomace[ae].
Spermatic animalcules. See Spermatozoa.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
genus of fresh-water algae, 1798, from Latin volvere "to roll," from PIE root *wel- (3) "to turn, revolve," with derivatives referring to curved, enclosing objects (cognates: Sanskrit valate "turns round," ulvam "womb, vulva;" Lithuanian valtis "twine, net," vilnis "wave," apvalus "round;" Old Church Slavonic valiti "roll, welter," vlŭna "wave;" Greek eluo "wind, wrap," helix "spiral object," eilein "to turn, squeeze;" Gothic walwjan "to roll;" Old English wealwian "roll," weoloc "whelk, spiral-shelled mollusk;" Old High German walzan "to roll, waltz;" Old Irish fulumain "rolling;" Welsh olwyn "wheel"). So called from their motion.
Wiktionary
n. (context zoology English) Any of the genus ''Volvox'' of chlorophytes.
Wikipedia
Volvox is a polyphyletic genus of chlorophyte green algae in the family Volvocaceae. It forms spherical colonies of up to 50,000 cells. They live in a variety of freshwater habitats, and were first reported by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1700. Volvox diverged from unicellular ancestors approximately .
Usage examples of "volvox".
The white corpuscles of the blood of a frog, and the cilia on two infusorial animals, a Paramaecium and Volvox, were similarly affected by the poison.
They look a little like colonial volvox algae, or soccer balls exquisitely fashioned out of blown glass and bits of diamond.
The revolving volvox likewise increases by growth until it becomes a society of animals, a multiple system of individuals.
This monad was once supposed to be a single animal, but the microscope shows it to be a group of animals connected by means of six processes, and each little growing volvox exhibits his red-eye speck and two long spines, or horns.
These could be just mobile algal colonies-like volvox and other pond life on Earth.