An operculum is present only in Amphibola; a contrast being thus afforded with the operculate pulmonate Streptoneura (Cyclostoma, &c.), which differ in other essential features of structure from the Pulmonata.
Here the two elements, ovum and yolk-cells, are surrounded by a shell of operculate or of spindle-capped types.
Mucronalia, foot reduced, but still operculate, eyes present, animal fixed by its very long proboscis which is deeply buried in the tissues of an Echinoderm, no pseudopallium.
Sometimes at the place where they exist, the outer membrane, in place of being thin and transparent, is separated in the form of a lid, thus becoming operculate, as in the passionflower and gourd.
Such a calyx is operculate or calyptrate.
The eggs are stalked and provided with chitinoid often operculate shell.
The shell is thick, and operculate in some forms; thin, and provided with filaments, in others; in the latter cases it may contain only a few yolk-granules suspended in an albumen-like substance.
Therein an order Thoracica comprehends the pedunculate Lepadidae, together with the operculate and sessile Balanidae and Verrucidae; a single species without cirrhi constitutes the order Apoda, and a single species with only three pairs of cirrhi the order Abdominalia.