protogynous

1 9.9

A plant or animal that is female first, with male parts becoming ready later

adjective
/ˌproʊtəˈdʒɪnəs/

Specialized

: protógino

The banana shrimp exhibits a protogynous lifecycle, where females mature before males in the population.

Examples

The classic model of sex change, the SAH, predicts that species showing polygyny should exhibit a protogynous sex allocation pattern, whereas those showing monogamy should exhibit a protandrous pattern.

Academic text (2013)
In some species of fish, such as the parrotfish, individuals are protogynous, starting life as females before becoming males.
Many coral reef species are protogynous, meaning their female stages develop before their male stages.

Surface Forms

protogynous positive

Morphology

protogynous = protogyny (semi-transparent) = proto + gyn + ous

The adjective is formed regularly from the technical noun 'protogyny' plus '-ous', but the underlying combining forms are specialized rather than everyday vocabulary.

Etymology

Protogynous comes from Greek parts proto- 'first' and gyn- 'woman' or 'female', and you can see these parts in prototype, which means 'first type', and gynecologist, a doctor for women. It describes plants or animals where the female stage comes before the male stage, so the name literally means 'female first'.