Definition of "ootheca" [ootheca]

• The egg case of certain insects and mollusks. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Other species, however, simply drop the ootheca off in some hidden corner, where the babies can incubate safely while you beat their mothers to death with a shoe."
• "Stumble upon enough ootheca in the basement, and its liable to be the first thing you take to the lab."
• "Some cockroaches will tote the ootheca around attached to their bodies until the babies hatch."