apoda

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. In zo⊙l., a name given to various groups of animals. As used by Aristotle, the third division of Zootoka, or air-breathing animals which bring forth their young alive. It included the whales. This probably original use of the word still lingers in some systems. See . Those placental mammals which have no feet, as distinguished from the Pedota (which see). In ichthyology, same as Apodes. In Cuvier's system of classification, the second order of echinoderms, contrasted with Pedicellata. It is a heterogeneous group, consisting of the following genera: Molpadia, Minyas, Priapulus, Lithodermis, Siphunculus, Bonellia, Thalassema; the first a holo-thurian, the second a cœlenterate, the rest gephyreans. With Van der Hoeven, an order of echinoderms. See Gephyrea. In Claus's arrangement, an order of holothurians, containing the families Synaptidæ and Molpadiidæ, the last of which constitutes his suborder Pneumonophora. In Macleay's system of classification, a division of Annelida, including those which have no feet or distinct head: opposed to Polypoda. It is divided into three groups, the Lumbricina, Nemertina, and Hirudinea, or the earthworms, nemerteans, and leeches, An order of Amphibia, same as Gymnophiona or Ophiomorpha, constituted by the family Cæciliidæ alone. A group of degraded parasitic cirripeds, having a vermiform body, a suctorial mouth, no thoracic or abdominal limbs (and consequently no cirri), and a rudimentary peduncle represented by two separate threads bearing the characteristic antenniform organs. There is but one genus, Proteolepas (which see).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A group of cirripeds, destitute of footlike organs.
2. n. An order of Amphibia without feet. See ophiomorpha.
3. n. A group of worms without appendages, as the leech.