Definition of "prothorax" [pro•tho•rax]

• The anterior division of the thorax of an insect, bearing the first pair of legs. (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.

• "Many of the names which he proposed are still in use; it was he who introduced the terms prothorax, mesothorax, and metathorax, for the three segments of the insect's thorax."
• "The head, if rather narrow, is distinct, and beneath the prothorax is a characteristic sclerite known as the 'anchor process' or"
• "This very singular genus differs from all the Stridulantes in the size and shape of the prothorax; in the neuration of the elytra it is allied to PLATYPLEURA (Amyst and Serville) in the size of head and hairiness of body it approaches CARINETA of the same authors."