[mod.L., f. sub- SUB- 2 b (a) + OPERCULUM.]
1. Ichth. The bone situated below the operculum in the gill-cover of a fish.
1834. McMurtrie, Cuviers Anim. Kingd., 191. A sort of lid, composed of three bony pieces, the operculum, the sub[o]perculum, and the interoperculum.
1878. Bell, trans. Gegenbaurs Comp. Anat., 455. Behind the preoperculum is the suboperculum.
1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 93.
2. Anat. The part of an occipital orbital gyre which overlies the insula of Reil.
1889. Bucks Handbk. Med. Sci., VIII. 160/2. The insula becomes a subgyre, while the operculum, preoperculum, suboperculum, and postoperculum are supergyres.
Hence Suboperculiform a., of the form of a suboperculum.
1852. Dana, Crust., I. 569. The outer maxillipeds are suboperculiform.