Zool. [G. taster feeler, antenna, f. tasten to feel, touch.] In certain Hydrozoa, A modified zooid situated on the polyp-stem, and somewhat resembling the polypites, but having no mouth; a hydrocyst or feeler.
1884. Stand. Nat. Hist., I. 100. Alternating with the polypites at intervals along the polypstem are found very curious bodies called tasters, which have a close likeness to the flask-shaped zoôids.
[1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 770. Siphonophora.… The various parts…. (1) The polypite or gastrozooid…. (2) Hydrocysts or feelers (= Taster of German writers)…. These structures are polypites in which the distal or oral extremity is imperforate and usually armed with cnidoblasts. The pedicle is absent or short.]
