Hamulus

Hamus, hamulus, and words derived from them are morphological or anatomical terms in various branches of biology. They describe structures functioning as, or in the form of, hooks or hooklets.

Derived terms

The terms are directly from Latin, in which hamus means "hook". The plural is hami.

Hamulus is the diminutive – hooklet or little hook. The plural is hamuli.

Adjectives are hamate and hamulate, as in "hamulate wing-coupling", in which the wings of certain insects in flight are joined by hooking hamuli on one wing, into folds on a matching wing. Hamulate can also mean "having hamuli". The terms hamose, hamular, hamous and hamiform also have been used to mean "hooked", or "hook-shaped". Terms such as hamate that do not indicate a diminutive usually refer particularly to a hook at the tip, whereas diminutive terms such as hamulose tend to imply that something is beset with small hooks.

Anatomy

In vertebrate anatomy, a hamulus is a small, hook-shaped portion of a bone, or possibly of other hard tissue.