Calyx (anatomy)
Cuplike areas or structures on animals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In animal anatomy, a calyx (pl. calyces or calyxes; also calix[1]; pl. calices or calixes) is a cuplike area or structure.
Etymology
Latin, from calyx (from Ancient Greek κάλυξ, 'case of a bud, husk').
Cnidarians
The spicules containing the basal portion of the upper tentacular part of the polyp of some soft corals (also called calice).
Entoprocta
A body part of the Entoprocta from which tentacles arise and the mouth and anus are located.[2]
Echinoderms
The body disk that is covered with a leathery tegumen containing calcareous plates (in crinoids and ophiuroids the main part of the body where the viscera are located).[3]
Humans
Either a minor calyx in the kidney, a conglomeration of two or three minor calyces to form a major calyx, or the Calyx of Held, a particularly large synapse in the mammalian auditory central nervous system, named by H. Held in his 1893 article Die centrale Gehörleitung,[4] due to its flower-petal-like shape.[5]
Insects
In male insects, a funnel-shaped expansion of the basal part of the vas deferens (part of the seminal duct). Also in entomology, a flattened cap of neuropile in an insect brain (a component of the corpus pedunculatum) and by certain female insects, an expansion of the oviduct into which the ovarioles open.
