Oviparous

Definition

Reproducing by producing eggs that are laid outside the maternal body, with embryos developing in metabolically independent eggs and hatching as free-living juveniles rather than being born live. The dominant reproductive mode across insects, arachnids, and most other animal phyla.

Etymology

From Latin ovum (egg) + parere (to bring forth)

Example

Most butterflies are oviparous, depositing fertilized eggs on host plants where larvae hatch and feed externally; contrast with the ovoviviparous Madagascar hissing cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa), which retains eggs internally until they hatch.

Synonyms

• egg-laying

Related Terms

• oviparity
• Viviparous
• Ovoviviparous
• oviposition
• embryonic development
• lecithotrophic

Usage Notes

Oviparous contrasts with viviparous (live-bearing with maternal nutrient transfer) and ovoviviparous (eggs retained internally until hatching, with little or no maternal nutrient transfer). In entomology, oviparity is ancestral and dominant, though viviparity has evolved repeatedly in aphids, tsetse flies, and some cockroaches. The term describes a reproductive mode, not a taxonomic group.