Definitions

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

  • noun Plural form of pupa.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The maggots hatch, enjoy several meals at the nearest dead-animal buffet, develop cocoons known as pupae and turn into flies.

    Dawn of the Dead-Flesh Eaters 2004

  • Above the pupae is a perpendicular column of fine, dry sand, the height of which varies in different tubes.

    The Life of the fly; with which are interspersed some chapters of autobiography Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

  • The 'heaters' are responsible for maintaining the temperature in the hive where young bees, known as pupae, are sealed into wax cells while they grow into adult bees.

    urban sprout - green news organic eco directory MichaelE 2010

  • In the unknown world, I might actually be some sort of nacent angel, or some kind of pupae-stage hero, some kind of backwater demigod.

    Apology of a Madman 2009

  • When the trolley feels it has enough shopping, it will just stop in the centre of the aisle and will remain there seemingly unattended and abandoned, but in reality it is a kind of pupae stage.

    The Life-Cycle of The Shopping Trolley David Hadley 2009

  • When the trolley feels it has enough shopping, it will just stop in the centre of the aisle and will remain there seemingly unattended and abandoned, but in reality it is a kind of pupae stage.

    Archive 2009-04-01 David Hadley 2009

  • Rhizocephala, being astomatous, cannot of course live long as Nauplii, and in the course of only a few days they become transformed into equally astomatous "pupae," as Darwin calls them.

    Facts and Arguments for Darwin Fritz Muller 1859

  • It has been a shorthand for horror ever since: given an honourable mention in Bram Stoker's Dracula, more recently its pupae were left in the mouths of victims by the serial killer in The Silence of the Lambs.

    Indian summer sees exotic moths fly in 2011

  • She was exceptionally well illustrated, with many colour plates; most of the illustrations featured moths, larvae, pupae, caterpillars, cocoons.

    Audrey Niffenegger | Moths of the New World 2011

  • Because the effort to sort males from females wasn't foolproof, about 0.5% of the transgenic pupae that hatched and got released were female.

    Scientists Tweak Bugs to Zap Disease Gautam Naik 2011

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