Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The representative genus of Limulidæ.
  • noun [lowercase] Any crustacean of the genus Limulus.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) The only existing genus of Merostomata. It includes only a few species from the East Indies, and one (Limulus polyphemus) from the Atlantic coast of North America. Called also Molucca crab, king crab, horseshoe crab, and horsefoot.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun type genus of the family Limulidae

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin līmulus, sidelong (from its motion), diminutive of līmus.]

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Examples

  • Edit lol, sorry limulus; i caught your post right after you posted it! tacitus

    Harriet, Sweet Harriet - The Panda's Thumb 2006

  • Out of interest, here are the Ultra Fractal files - limulus. ufr and limulus. ufm - for a 'horseshoe crab' biomorph I designed in Fractint a while back.

    Archive 2003-11-01 Ray Girvan 2003

  • Out of interest, here are the Ultra Fractal files - limulus. ufr and limulus. ufm - for a 'horseshoe crab' biomorph I designed in Fractint a while back.

    State of the fractal art Ray Girvan 2003

  • Among crustacea, it is very remarkable that trilobites and limulus-like forms are the only representatives of the class during the paleozoic ages; that macrourans prevailed in the same manner during the secondary period; and that brachyurans make their appearance only in the tertiary period.

    Louis Agassiz His Life and Correspondence Agassiz, Louis 1885

  • Among crustacea, it is very remarkable that trilobites and limulus-like forms are the only representatives of the class during the paleozoic ages; that macrourans prevailed in the same manner during the secondary period; and that brachyurans make their appearance only in the tertiary period.

    Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence Louis Agassiz 1840

  • The endotoxin level was 0.8 EU/mg sCD14 as determined by limulus amoebocyte lysate assay (Lonza, Verviers, Belgium).

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Adam A. Anas et al. 2010

  • There’s a substance in the blood of the horseshoe crab— LAL, which stands for limulus amoebocyte lysate—which is used to test medical drugs for contamination and to detect vitamin B-12 deficiencies.

    Devlin’s Light Mariah Stewart 1997

  • "odd" and where limulus mentioned it thought it a good time to agree.

    unknown title 2009

  • "odd" and where limulus mentioned it thought it a good time to agree.

    unknown title 2009

Comments

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  • See Horseshoe Crab whose scientific name, Limulus means "odd" and polyphemus refers to the giant in greek mythology. It is based on the misleading idea that the animal had a single eye.

    February 26, 2009