Calyx (anatomy)

In animal anatomy, a calyx is a cuplike area or structure.

Etymology

Latin, from calyx.

The spicules containing the basal portion of the upper tentacular part of the polyp of some soft corals.

A body part of the Entoprocta from which tentacles arise and the mouth and anus are located.

The body disk that is covered with a leathery tegumen containing calcareous plates.

Either a minor calyx in the kidney, a conglomeration of two or three minor calyces to form a major calyx, or the Calyx of Held, a particularly large synapse in the mammalian auditory central nervous system, named by H. Held in his 1893 article Die centrale Gehörleitung, due to its flower-petal-like shape.

In male insects, a funnel-shaped expansion of the basal part of the vas deferens. Also in entomology, a flattened cap of neuropile in an insect brain and by certain female insects, an expansion of the oviduct into which the ovarioles open.