nauplius

noun

1. A crustacean larva that has three pairs of locomotive organs (corresponding to antennules, antennae, and mandibles), a median eye, and little or no segmentation of the body.

   “The oval body, with the abdomen not yet differentiated, and bearing no limbs; the (usually) three pairs of limbs, representing the first and second antennæ and mandibles of the adult, together with the single eye, are the distinguishing characteristics of the nauplius stage.”

   “Fairy-shrimps are primitive crustaceans, most of which live in temporary ponds, roadside ditches, or marshes that dry up in sumer. They lay thick-walled eggs that withstand summer drying and winter freezing, lying dormant in the mud until they hatch out as naupliuses when wetted by the first heavy spring rain.”

   “It is not certain that phaseluses are trilobites and not naupliuses of crustaceans or an extinct group of arthropods that has yet to be recognized.”

   “The copepod nauplii concentrations were significantly different among stations and by depth (Appendices 3 and 4).”

name

1. (Greek)A son of the god Poseidon by Amymone, daughter of Danaus, and founder of the city of Nauplia.
2. (Greek)A descendant of the founder of Nauplia who ruled the city (alternatively, Euboea), was one of the Argonauts, and was father to Palamedes, who fought in the Trojan War.

   “But according to Lycophron, the last of the Greek poets, Penelope committed adultery with one of the suitors at the persuasion of the aged Nauplius, who avenged the death of his son Palamedes by enticing almost all the wives of the Greeks into prostitution.”

   “A scene from Aristophanes' Women at the Thesmophoria (765-84) preserves a parody of the event which featured Palamedes' brother Oeax writing a message on oars in the hope that one will reach his father Nauplius with news of the betrayal and murder.”