Multivoltin

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Producing more than one brood or generation within a single year, as certain insects do during a growing season
2. Describing an organism that completes several reproductive cycles across one calendar year rather than just one
3. Characterizing insects or other animals that raise multiple successive generations during the course of a year

Etymology: "Multivoltin" is a dated spelling of "multivoltine," an adjective used in biology, particularly entomology, to describe an insect that produces several generations in a single year. The word is built from "multi-," meaning many, and "-voltine," a suffix that comes from the Latin "volvere," to roll or turn, through the sense of a cycle or round. The combination describes a life cycle that turns over repeatedly within one season. The "-voltine" element is a technical coinage rather than a word that circulated in everyday speech. It appears in the names of related terms, such as "univoltine" for one generation a year and "bivoltine" for two, which were formed on the same pattern to classify insects by how many broods they produce annually. Silkworm breeders and entomologists found the scheme useful, since the number of generations a species produces in a year shapes its growth, its spread, and how it can be farmed or controlled.

Antonyms: univoltine