hydranth Zool.
(ˈhaɪdrænθ)
[f. hydra (sense 6) + Gr. ἄνθ-ος flower.]
One of the non-sexual zooids, typically nutritive in function, occurring in colonial Hydrozoa, usually on the branches of the cœnosarc (like flowers on a plant). Sometimes extended to any hydroid (free or colonial).
| 1874 Lubbock Orig. & Met. Ins. iii. 49 Every branchlet crowned by its graceful hydranth. 1877 Huxley Anat. Inv. Anim. iii. 128 In an early stage of its existence every hydrozoon is represented by a single hydranth. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 245 The hydrosome [of Sertularia] consists of a number of hydranths or nutritive zooids collectively forming the trophosome and connected to one another by a branching cœnosarc. |