(The word of the day is taken from the Torre Bueno Glossary of Entomology… this one was chosen by a lab member)

Cymbiform, boat-shaped; a concave disc with elevated margin; navicular.

I told a lab member to skim through the book and find a funny word, and he did. I can’t think of anything I deal with that I would describe as “boat-shaped”, so I took a look around the internet.

The first thing I noticed was that there are a lot of websites defining the word, but not actually using it. And a google image search brings up a lot of boat shaped plastic objects, like bowls, but no insects. A search of “cymbiform insect” doesn’t bring up much. The most common usage I have found relates to plants. Maybe it’s considered an entomological word because insects eat the plants?

Can you think of any insect part that would be described as cymbiform?

If nothing else, it could be a creative insult. “My, what a cymbiform head you have.”