exuvia

Etymology

From Latin exuvia, back-formation from the plurale tantum exuviae (“the skin of an animal sloughed off”), from exuō (“to take off”). See also exuvium.

noun

1. (biology) The remains of the exoskeleton after any of the Ecdysozoa, such as Arthropoda, has sloughed, discarding its old integument and developing the new one.
   1787 George Adams (Mathematical Instrument Maker, the Younger.): Essays on the Microscope The exuvia or cast skin of insects, being exceedingly transparent, are well adapted for observation, as they exhibit the outward appearance of the little animal; among these we may reckon those of spiders and cimices, but particularly the forficula, or earwig, which is an elegant exuvia.
   1868 C. S. BATE & J. O.: WESTWOOD BRITISH SESSILE-EYED CRUSTACEA. The immediate assumption of every carcinologist will be that we may have mistaken exuvia, or cast skin, for the animal. With the exuviae all the appendages, together with the stomach and alimentary canal, are thrown off.
   2013 A.J. Boucot: Evolutionary Paleobiology of Behavior and Coevolution By means of convulsive opisthosomal contraction and persistent flapping of the gills, the moulting individual eventually emerges from the exuvia through a hydrostatically expanded suture along the frontal margin of the prosoma.

noun

1. plural of exuvium