[a. It. aurelia ‘the [silk] worm when shut up in his pod’ (Baretti); from fem. of aurelio ‘shining like gold, yellow, golden; also the little wings of butterflies’ (Florio, 1598); f. L. aurum gold; thus synonymous with chrysalis, Gr. χρυσαλλίς, f. χρυσός gold.]
1. Ent. The chrysalis or pupa of an insect, esp. of a butterfly. (Now scarcely in use, chrysalis being the ordinary term.)
1607. Topsell, Serpents, 669. All Caterpillers are not converted into Aureliaes.
1667. Boyle, Orig. Formes & Qual. Then Aurelia’s (or husked Maggots), and then Butterflies.
1713. Derham, Phys. Theol., VIII. v. 409. They retire to Places of Safety … and put on their Aurelia or Chrysalis State.
1854. H. Miller, Footpr. Creat., viii. (1874), 152. An intermediate period of apparent death as an inert aurelia.
† 2. The Gold-flower (Heliochrysum Stachas). Obs.
1598. Florio [Aurelia, the herb called Mothweede, or golden Floweramour, or golden Stœchados or Cudweede], Eliocriss, the gold flower or herbe Aurelia.
3. Zool. A genus of phosphorescent marine animals of the class Acalephæ.
1876. Beneden, Anim. Parasites, 33. Alex. Agassiz once found a Hyperina on the disc of an Aurelia.
