Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The hindmost of the three divisions of the thorax of an insect, bearing the third pair of legs and the second pair of wings.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In entomology, the third and last segment of the thorax, succeeding the mesothorax, preceding the abdomen, and bearing the third pair of legs and the second pair of wings

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) The last or posterior segment of the thorax in insects. See Illust. of coleoptera.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The hindmost of the three sections of the thorax of an insect

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Black; the antennæ and legs ferruginous; the head and thorax rugose; the prothorax transverse, its anterior margin slightly curved, with the lateral angles produced forwards and very acute; the thorax narrowed to the metathorax, which is armed with two divergent acute spines.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • _ The specimens from Aru differ from the typical ones in wanting the two longitudinal yellow lines on the metathorax, which is entirely black.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Head, antennæ, thorax, and legs honey-yellow and very smooth and shining; thorax strangulated at the base of the metathorax, which is not spined; the first node of the abdomen is oblique anteriorly, and vertical behind, the second node subglobose.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • My first estimate of its size had been a little conservative; it was one of those fat moths with round thoraxes; the metathorax was especially round, looking like a witch's idea of a pot pie.

    An East Wind Coming Cover, Arthur Byron 1979

  • Reddish-brown, covered with a thin cinereous pubescence; the clypeus acutely angular anteriorly; the metathorax oblique and delicately striated transversely; wings fusco-hyaline; the petiole of the abdomen long, the segment campanulated and narrow.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Black; a narrow line of pale fulvous pubescence on the margin of the thorax in front, a patch of the same colour on each side of the metathorax, and the basal segment of the abdomen covered above with similar pubescence; the apical margin of the third and fourth segments, and the fifth and six entirely, covered with bright brick-red pubescence; the wings black, with coppery iridescence.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • _Thorax_, oblong-ovate in the _female_, in the _worker_ transverse in front and narrowed behind with the metathorax bidentate; the anterior wings with one elongate marginal cell and two submarginal cells, the second extending to the apex of the wing; the legs stout, the femora incrassate; abdomen ovate, the peduncle with two nodes.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Head and abdomen jet-black; the antennæ, thorax, and legs of a clear honey-yellow; the mandibles of a more obscure yellow; the anterior margin of the thorax transverse, the lateral angles acute, narrowed from thence to the base of the mesothorax, the disk anteriorly slightly convex; the metathorax armed with two acute spines.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Thorax not quite so wide as the head anteriorly, narrowed behind, with the disk somewhat flattened, slightly convex, a deep strangulation between the meso - and metathorax, the latter obliquely rounded; the legs and abdomen sprinkled with glittering white hairs.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

  • Thorax rounded above, the sides not margined; two spines on the thorax anteriorly, two on the metathorax, and two on the scale of the petiole; the legs elongate, with the anterior tibiæ ferruginous.

    Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology Various

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