Glossary
Benthic: Living at the bottom of a sea or lake*
Brood (noun): A number of offspring or young produced or hatched
at one time*
Brood (verb): To incubate*
Convergent Evolution: The development through evolution of
similar features by
organisms with distinctly different
ancestors*
Copulation: Sexual intercourse*
Dark Threshold: A level of darkness at which light levels are
low enough for feeding and reproductive activity to occur
Detritivore: An organism that feeds on and breaks down dead
plant or animal matter, returning essential nutrients to the
ecosystem*
Ecdysis: The shedding or casting off of an outer coat or
integument by snakes, crustaceans, etc.*
Entrainment: When a competing male bioluminescent ostracod
produces a bioluminescent mating display parallel to another male's
Furca: A foot used for swimming that can also propel the
ostracod along the sediment
Glycogen: A polysaccharide that is the main form of carbohydrate
storage in animals and occurs mainly in liver and muscle tissue;
it is readily converted to glucose.*
Heterotrophic: An organism that cannot manufacture its own food
and instead obtains its food and energy by taking in organic
substances*
Incisur: An opening in the ostracod's carapace that allows for
the extension and use of its antennae
Instar: A stage in the life of an arthropod between two
successive molts*
Forage: The act of searching for food*
Keel: A longitudinal ridge that streamlines the organism and
helps it stay upright
Leading: When a male initiates the first bioluminescent mating display of the
night
Light Organ: The gland in bioluminescent ostracods that
produces the protein luciferin and the
enzyme luciferase, chemicals that create bioluminescence for
Photeros annecohenae
Microhabitat: An extremely localized, small-scale environment*
Molting: To shed an outer covering, such as skin or feathers,
for replacement by a new growth*
Nautical Twilight: The period of time when the sun is six
to 12 degrees below the horizon
Ommatidia: One of the tiny light-sensitive parts of the compound
eye of insects and other arthropods. An ommatidium resembles a
single simplified eye.* Each of the ommatidium capture part of
the image; these images are then sent to the brain to be "put
together."
Open Circulatory System: System in which nutrients and oxygen
are transported throughout the body via a transport fluid, hemolymph; this hemolymph is not
transported in enclosed vessels as it would be in a closed circulatory system.
Scavenger: An organism that feeds on dead
organic matter*
Secondary Predator: The predator's predator
Sneakers: When a “photetically-silent” male follows a
luminescent male’s mating display in hopes of intercepting a female
swimming across his spiral path
Setae: A stiff hair, bristle, or bristle-like process or part on
an organism*
Sexual Dimorphism: Differences in appearance between the males
and females of a species*
Sexual Selection: An evolutionary process in animals, in which
selection by females of males with certain characters results in
the preservation of these characters in the species*
Spermatophores: Sacs of sperm inserted and left in the female by a male of her
own species so other males
cannot impregnate her
Taxonomy: The science dealing with the description,
identification, naming, and classification of organisms*
Viscera: The soft internal organs of the body, especially those
contained within the abdominal and thoracic cavities*
Definitions with an asterix symbol (*) after them came from
www.dictionary.com.