noun
- Any of the walking legs of a crustacean, typically found on the thorax or cephalothorax, distinct from the swimmerets or maxillipeds.
Usage: zoology; technical term; plural: pereiopods
Examples
- The crab uses its pereiopods to walk along the ocean floor.
- Lobsters have five pairs of pereiopods on each side of their body.
- The first pair of pereiopods in many crustaceans are modified into claws or chelae.
- Biologists examined the pereiopods to classify the species.
- Unlike swimmerets, pereiopods are primarily adapted for locomotion rather than swimming.