Metamorphosis

(metamor' -fosis). A term denoting the structural changes in form which all organisms undergo during their development from the embryonic to the adult stage. It is applied particularly to that form of sexual reproduction in which the embryo undergoes a series of marked changes of external form, and in of which reproduction is po ible until the sexually developed form (the imago-stage of butterflies) is produced. In pathology, a degeneration. M., Complete, in insects, the three stages of metamorphosis, larva, pupa, imago. M., Hem i metabolic, a metamorphosis in which the succeeding stages do not differ much, although the first and last stages may present great variations. M., Holometabolic. See M., Complete. M., Regre ive, M., Retrograde, a disintegrating change; a degeneration; also the change of an organ from a higher to a lower type. M., Viscous, the agglutination of blood-plaques and their conversion into a thrombus.