alula
(ˈæljʊlə)
Pl. alulæ.
[mod.L. dim. of āla wing.]
1. Ornith. The bastard wing of a bird (see bastard a. 5 c).
| 1772 [see bastard a. 5 c]. 1959 Van Tyne & Berger Fund. Ornith. iii. 82 The group of feathers borne by the ‘thumb’ or ‘pollex’ is called the alula. Ibid. 83 Alula quills should be numbered from the innermost to the outermost. |
2. Ent. A small scale-like appendage at the base of each wing of many Diptera, above the halteres. Also, a similar appendage beneath the elytron in some water-beetles.
| 1817 Kirby & Spence Entomol. II. 359 (Diptera) Their winglets (Alulæ). 1877 Encycl. Brit. VI. 127 In certain water beetles (Dytiscidæ) a pair of alulæ, or winglets, are developed at the inner angle of the elytra. 1899 D. Sharp in Camb. Nat. Hist. VI. vii. 447 On the hind margin of the wing, near the base, there is often a more or less free lobe..called the ‘alula’. |