‖ squama
(ˈskweɪmə)
Pl. squamæ. Also 8 squamma.
[L. squāma scale (in various senses): cf. squame. So It. squama, squamma.]
1. Zool. A scale as part of the integument of a fish, reptile, or insect.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Squama, the Scale of a Fish, Serpent, &c. 1728 [see 2]. 1817 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. II. xvii. 77 This species..borrowing the abdominal squama from the former [genus], and the sting from the latter. 1819 G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 250 Very squamous, the squamæ porrected in bundles. 1856 W. Clark Van der Hoeven's Zool. I. 321 Poisers covered with large squamæ. |
b. Path. A small portion of epidermis morbidly developed in the form of a scale.
| 1876 J. S. Bristowe Th. & Pract. Med. (1878) 311 The squamæ also vary in colour, consistence, thickness and form. |
2. Anat. A thin scaly portion of a bone, esp. of the temporal bone.
| 1728 Chambers Cycl., Squammous, in Anatomy, an Epithet given to the Spurious or false Sutures of the Skull; because composed of Squammæ or Scales like those of Fishes. 1866 Huxley Prehist. Rem. Caithn. 96 The upper part of the occipital squama is produced into a protuberance. 1877 Burnett Ear 41 The canal is represented at that point by the curved lower edge of the squama. |
3. Bot. = scale n.2 3 d.
| 1738 Gentl. Mag. VIII. 140/2 As the Virtues of the Hop reside in the Squammæ, or subtile transparent Leaves. 1775 J. Jenkinson tr. Linnæus' Brit. Pl. 240 The cup..is a squama, growing out of the leaf. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 277 The one-flowered species of Schœnus, in which a single naked flower is surrounded by several imbricated squamæ. 1842 Penny Cycl. XXII. 393/2 Examples of the squama are seen in those parts of the amentum or catkin which contain the organs of reproduction. 1861 Bentley Man. Bot. 190 The bracts of that kind of inflorescence called an Amentum or Catkin..are termed squamæ or scales. |
Hence squaˈmaceous a., furnished with scales.
| 1857 A. Gray First Less. Bot. (1860) 231. |