ˈspermatophore
[f. spermato- + -phore.]
1. Biol. In certain of the lower forms of animal life, a structure containing a compact mass of spermatozoa.
| 1847–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. IV. i. 485/1 These fibres in the Cephalopods are..surrounded..by peculiar sack-like enclosures or Spermatophores. 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life 108 A packet of spermatozoa, aggregated in their passage along the convolutions of the vasa deferentia into the so-called ‘spermatophore’. 1880 Huxley Crayfish 351 The filaments are in fact tubular spermatophores. |
2. Bot. A part of the spermogonium of lichens or fungi, on which the spermatia are borne.
| 1861 Bentley Man. Bot. 384 The spermagonium, when mature, has its interior filled with a number of bodies called spermatia..raised on stalks, termed spermatophores. |
Hence spermatoˈphoric a.
| 1959 W. Andrew Textbk. Compar. Histol. xii. 475 [In the common squid] peculiarly complicated organs, the spermatophoric organs and sacs, receive the sperm from the vas deferens, pack them into bundles, and cover them with a tunic..before their ejection as spermatophores by the penis. 1977 M. J. & J. Wells in Giese & Pearse Reproduction Marine Invertebrates IV. vi. 297 In..the wider initial section of the first spermatophoric gland, the sperm are embedded in a mucin secretion. |