Definition Help: Eclosure

[kengwen]

Can someone help me with a definition for Eclosure. I'm in a genetics class, reading papers about gene splicing in D. melanogaster, and this word keeps coming up but I can't find it in any dictionary.

Thanks!

[Jessieh04]

eclosure is when the chrysalis (pup in a cocoon) breaks open and the, for example, butterfly comes out.

In the case of your Drosophila melanogaster, it is when the fly comes out of its cocoon.