moulting
moulting Process involving the shedding of the outermost layers of an organism and their replacement. Mammals moult by shedding outer skin layers and hair, often at seasonal intervals. Birds moult their feathers, and amphibians and reptiles their skin. In all cases, hormones control the process. The moulting of insects and other arthropods, a process also called ecdysis, involves the resorption into the body of materials from the hard outer cuticle of the exoskeleton, making the cuticle more fragile. The arthropod then swells its body, and bursts free from the old cuticle and slowly reforms a new one around its swollen body, increasing in size. See also metamorphosis
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moulting
