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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Glossary » N » naiad, naiads, naiades

naiad, naiads, naiades

Classification · Pronunciation · Explanation of Names · Identification · Remarks · See Also · Print References · Internet References · Works Cited
Damselfly naiad - Enallagma
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
No Taxon (Glossary)
No Taxon (N)
No Taxon naiad, naiads, naiades
Pronunciation
Rather variable (Internet searches):
NAY-ud or NAY-ad (nā'-əd or nā'-ăd)
also given as NYE-ud, NYE-ad (nī'-əd or nī'-ăd)
The Century Dictionary (1) gives the pronunciation as NAY-yad (nā'-yăd)
Explanation of Names
From Greek mythology, a naias was a water nymph. Wiktionary gives the detailed origin: from Ancient Greek Ναϊάς (Nāïas), "naiad", from νάειν (naein), "to flow".
Identification
naiad noun, plural naiads or naiades - the aquatic nymphs of several orders of hemimetabolous insects:
Ephemeroptera (mayflies)
Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies)
Plecoptera (stoneflies)
Naiads have gills and do not resemble the adult insect.

Photos showing examples of naiads of different groups...
Ephemeroptera (mayflies)
  

Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies)
  

Plecoptera (stoneflies)
  
Remarks
The term naiad was first proposed by entomologist John Henry Comstock in order to differentiate these forms from terrestrial nymphs of insect orders that are paurometabolous (Gordh and Headrick).
See Also
nymph
naiad
larva
metamorphosis
Print References
The Century Dictionary, entry for Naiad (1)
Gordh, A Dictionary of Entomology, p. 605 (2)
Internet References
Wikipedia: Nymph (Biology)
Wiktionary--naiad
The Free Dictionary--naiad
Works Cited
1.The Century Dictionary: an encyclopedic lexicon of the English language
2.A Dictionary of Entomology
George Gordh, David H. Headrick. 2003. CABI Publishing.
Contributed by Cotinis on 26 May, 2007 - 2:29am
Last updated 12 June, 2010 - 8:36am

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