cryptostomy

English

Etymology

From crypto- +‎ stoma +‎ -y.

Noun

cryptostomy

1. (biology) An adaptation in which the mouth is reduced to a slit and its location is concealed.
   • 1991, Biology Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, page 279:

     They are comparatively large, without outgrowths, of a rounded shape, with a flattened ventral surface and cryptostomy or plagiostomy with a lip.

   • 2000, John J. Lee, Gordon F. Leedale, Phyllis Clarke Bradbury, An illustrated guide to the protozoa:

     The slit-like pseudostome is hidden by the dorsal lip and an extension of the ventral shell wall (cryptostomy).

   • 2012, A Burgers, Soil Biology, page 170:

     Two other morphological features, plagiostomy and cryptostomy, are considered to be adaptations to life in soil; both involve a reduction in the size of the pseudostome in proportion to the test and the formation of a vestibule (Fig. 11) and both tend, therefore, to protect the cell against dessicaation (Bonnet, 1961a, 1964).