exuvia

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a skin, shell, exoskeleton, or other outer covering shed by an animal during molting

   The empty dragonfly exuvia remained attached to the reed.

2. 2
   noun

   literary or figurative: something cast off or left behind like a shed covering

   The abandoned furniture seemed like the exuvia of an earlier life.

A scientific singular formed from Latin exuviae, 'things stripped off, cast skins, or spoils,' from exuere, 'to strip off or take off.' English exuviae was historically plural-only, but exuvia and exuvium developed as singular forms and are established in modern biological writing.

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