Eyelash

Eyelash describes the body covering of a living being with short, stiff, hair-like structures.

However, the term is used in slightly different senses by individual biological disciplines.

Botanists refer to leaves (rarely other organs) as ciliate when the leaf edge is covered by a series of short hairs. These hairs consist of outgrowths of cells, whole cells or threads from several cells in a row. See also leaf shape .

Protozoologists refer to the body covering of the unicellular ciliate animals as cilia . These eyelashes are short flagella , i.e. only cell components that more or less cover the entire surface of the body. See also Zilie .

Zoologists and doctors speak of cilia when the surface of an animal or organ is densely covered with flagella (eyelash epithelium or ciliated epithelium). In contrast to the ciliates, the surface consists of many cells, and each cell usually has only one flagella. Such eyelash epithelia occur in humans, for example, in the airways and fallopian tubes; in vortex worms and many other lower animals they can also cover the entire surface of the body. See also Zilie .

The beetles of the genus Pogonocherus ( Cerambycidae ) are called eyelashes because of the tufts of hair on the wing covers.