zooecium

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Same as zoœcium.
2. n. The ectocyst, or outer chitinous or calcified cell, in which a polypide of the Polyzoa is lodged, and into which a polypide can be retracted after protrusion; one of the cells of the cœnœcium, containing a polypide. It is the cuticle of the polypide itself, dense and tough, or hard, changing without solution of continuity into the soft delicate pellicle at the mouth of the animalcule. In the ectoproctous polyzoans it forms a case or shield into which the soft protrusible parts of the polypide can be withdrawn. See ectocyst, and cut under Plumatella.

Wiktionary

1. n. zoology One of the cells or tubes which enclose the feeling zooids of Bryozoa.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) One of the cells or tubes which inclose the feeling zooids of Bryozoa. See Illust. of sea moss.