Larvacea

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of marine animals within the subclass of tunicates that exhibit a free-swimming larval stage characterized by a gelatinous body and unique feeding structures
2. An order of small, gelatinous sea creatures that retain larval features throughout their life, filtering food from seawater and residing in the ocean
3. Tunicates that remain in a larval form for their entire life cycle, distinguished by their transparent bodies and a method of filter feeding in marine environments

Etymology: Latin "larva" originally meant "ghost" or "mask," and its use for the immature stage of an insect came later, when naturalists saw that young insects looked like disguised forms of their adults. The "-acea" ending is a Latin suffix that scientists adopted to name animal groups, as in Crustacea and Cetacea. Adding it to "larva" produced a name for a group defined by a larval-looking body. The name fits the animals in an unusual way. Adults of these tunicates keep the tadpole-like shape, with a tail, that other tunicate groups lose after their larval stage. Biologists call this retention of juvenile features neoteny. The group's other name, Appendicularia, refers to that tail, which is the appendage in its name.

Synonyms: appendicularian