Zool. Pl. -cula. [mod. L., f. L. vibrāre to shake.] One of the long whip-like movable processes or organs possessed by certain polyzoans; now regarded as a modified zooid.
1854. S. P. Woodward, Mollusca, 165. Eye tentacles deflected at the tips, beyond the eyes; vibracula much shorter, also deflected.
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea (1874), 225. But … there are some special organs of defence which were wanting in the Canda. One of these is called the vibraculum, or the whiplash.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., viii. 457. The dilated bases of the vibracula contain muscles by the contraction of which the flagelliform appendage is moved.
