autocolony

auto- +‎ colony

autocolony (plural autocolonies)

1. (botany) A daughter colony formed inside a cell of a parent colony.
   • 1914, Gilbert Morgan Smith, The Organization of the Colony in Certain Four-celled Coenobic Algae, page 1175:

     This may be because the formation of autocolonies within the mother cell wall is a considerable advance over the condition of free-lying spherical cells, and because along with the development of this autocolonial habit there has gone almost necessarily an axial differentiation of the individual cells.

   • 1916, George Stephen West, Algæ, page 219:

     This fact is of considerable interest as it shows how the autocolonies of certain of the Autosporaceæ may have arisen.

   • 1929, University of Pennsylvania. Botanical Laboratory, Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory and the Morris Arboretum, page 168:

     Autocolonies of 8 cells were occasional, and of 4 cells quite frequent.