zoea

noun

zo·​ea zō-ˈē-ə 

plural zoeae zō-ˈē-ˌē  or zoeas zō-ˈē-əz 

: a free-swimming planktonic larval form of many decapod crustaceans and especially crabs that has a relatively large cephalothorax, conspicuous eyes, and fringed antennae and mouthparts

Illustration of zoea

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, originally a genus name (the larva having been mistaken for a crustacean species), probably from Greek zōḗ "life" (derivative from the base of zô, zên "to be alive, live") + New Latin -ea, noun derivative from the feminine of Latin -eus -eous, zoo-

Note: Name introduced by the French botanist and zoologist Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc (1759-1828) in Histoire naturelle des crustacés, tome second (Paris, An X [1801-02]), p. 135. Bosc gives the vernacular name as zoé, but does not comment on the derivation of the word.

First Known Use

1828, in the meaning defined above