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(invertebrate zoology)
Asexual reproduction by segmentation of the body into zooids, proglottids, or separate individuals.



(1) A type of asexual reproduction in some invertebrates whereby daughter individuals are successively separated by transverse division from a parental body. The classical example of strobilation is the division of ephyrae (scyphozoan larvae) from a scyphistoma.

(2) The process by which the body of tapeworms is divided into similar segments (proglottids). The chain of segments is called a strobila.

References in periodicals archive ?
As with most scyphomedusae, Cyanea capillata's ephyrae arise by fission from a diminutive polyp stage during a process termed strobilation (well described by Russell, 1970).
Strobilation of the sea nettle, Chrysaora quinquecirrha, under field conditions.
Light as an inhibitor of strobilation in Aurelia aurita.
32 (growth, strobilation, Newport Bay).--MacGinitie and MacGinitie, 1968: 131, text fig.
Results of chi-square analyses on colony age class and reproductive state showed a significant age effect on the frequency of strobilating colonies among the youngest age class (colonies 1 month old), but the other age classes did not differ significantly from expected values for strobilation. Age-class comparisons of the frequency of colonies bearing developing oocytes or brooded larvae did not differ from expected values (Table III).
Iterative production of new zooids (i.e., colony growth) involves strobilation of the post-abdomen, where gonads develop, and disorganization of the atrial chamber (Holyoak, 1992), where larvae are brooded.