triungulin
triungulus latin

Blister beetles are hypermetamorphic, going through several larval stages, the first of which is typically a mobile triungulin.

The newly hatched larva is a triungulin, which resembles a dipluran larva.

The first larval instar is an active triungulin form that is a predator of soft insects such as aphids.

The first instar larva in the beetle family Meloidae has three claws on each foot, and is therefore called a triungulin (plural triungula).

Note that an obsolescent variant form from the same root as "triungulin" is triungulus, plural triunguli and sometimes it still is encountered.

They do not resemble the triungulin of most beetles with a hypermetamorphosis, but do resemble the triungulin of Stylops.

The triungulin will then, upon the host bee's arrival to its nest, remove itself from the bee, entering a cell and consuming all the provisions gathered by the host female.

For practical purposes of uniformity, except where there is some special reason for the use of the term "triungulin", it is best to use only the term "planidium".

Specifically, female N. lutea will lay their eggs on flowers and, when a bee arrives at this flower during provisioning, will secure itself, as a triungulin stage, to the bee.

Going beyond "complete metamorphosis", however, some beetles, such as typical members of the families Meloidae and Rhipiphoridae, undergo hypermetamorphosis in which the first instar takes the form of a triungulin.

The term "triungulin", originally coined in referring to the planidia of the beetle family Meloidae, is commonly applied to similar-looking planidial larvae of other families of beetles or of Strepsiptera.

As in other members of the family, they are hypermetamorphic, going through several larval stages, the first of which is typically a mobile triungulin that finds and attaches to a host in order to gain access to the host's offspring.

There is however, considerable variety in the forms of planidia that occur in various families and orders; in the beetle family Meloidae, the three-clawed planidium originally was called a triungulin, and similar planidia for example, those of the Strepsiptera, may also be called triungula.