Avicularia

This article explains an organ of the bryophytes . For the species of tarantula see Avicularia .

Avicularia (from Latin avicula = the little bird) are specialized individual animals of a bog animal colony that take on defense tasks. Avicularia got this name because they resemble a bird's beak and perform snapping movements. An immobile, massive rostrum ("upper beak") hits against a "lower beak" consisting of a modified operculum and holds foreign bodies in place. Avicularia are there to prevent the colony from overgrowing with foreign organisms.

The Cyclostomata and Ctenostomata have no avicularia.

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• Wilfried Westheide, Reinhard Rieger: Special Zoology. Part 1: Protozoa and invertebrates. 2nd Edition. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg / Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-8274-1575-2 , p. 773.