Pl. squamæ. Also 8 squamma. [L. squāma scale (in various senses): cf. SQUAME. So It. squama, squamma.]
1. Zool. A scale as part of the integument of a fish, reptile or insect.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Squama, the Scale of a Fish, Serpent, &c.
1728. [see 2].
1817. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., II. xvii. 77. This species … borrowing the abdominal squama from the former [genus], and the sting from the latter.
1819. G. Samouelle, Entomol. Compend., 250. Very squamous, the squamæ porrected in bundles.
1856. W. Clark, Van der Hoeven’s Zool., I. 321. Poisers covered with large squamæ.
b. Path. A small portion of epidermis morbidly developed in the form of a scale.
1876. Bristowe, Th. & Pract. Med. (1878), 311. The squamæ also vary in colour, consistence, thickness and form.
2. Anat. A thin scaly portion of a bone, esp. of the temporal bone.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Squammous, in Anatomy, an Epithet given to the Spurious or false Sutures of the Skull; because composed of Squammæ or Scales like those of Fishes.
1866. Huxley, Prehist. Rem. Caithn., 96. The upper part of the occipital squama is produced into a protuberance.
1877. Burnett, Ear, 41. The canal is represented at that point by the curved lower edge of the squama.
3. Bot. = SCALE sb.2 3 d.
1738. Gentl. Mag., VIII. 140/2. As the Virtues of the Hop reside in the Squammæ, or subtile transparent Leaves.
1775. J. Jenkinson, trans. Linnæus’ Brit. Pl., 240. The cup … is a squama, growing out of the leaf.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 277. The one-flowered species of Schœnus, in which a single naked flower is surrounded by several imbricated squamæ.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXII. 393/2. Examples of the squama are seen in those parts of the amentum or catkin which contain the organs of reproduction.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 190. The bracts of that kind of inflorescence called an Amentum or Catkin … are termed squamæ or scales.
Hence Squamaceous a., furnished with scales.
1857. A. Gray, First Less. Bot. (1860), 231.
