instar

Definition

Any one of the several stages of postembryonic development which an arthropod undergoes, between molts, before it reaches sexual maturity.

Etymology

From Latin instar (“form, likeness”), which is of obscure origin.

Example Sentences

• "In A. orientalis, first and second instars were more susceptible than third instars to H. bacteriophora TF strain, […]"
• "We avoided Tourist Homes, country cousins of Funeral ones, old-fashioned, genteel and showerless, with elaborate dressing tables in depressingly white-and-pink little bedrooms, and photographs of the landlady’s children in all their instars."
• "California spirituality is a late instar of America’s utopian impulse, and corporate meritocracy derives from the Whig dream of the self-made man that entranced young Abraham Lincoln."