\Pu"pa\, n.; pl. L. {Pup?}, E. {Pupas}. [L. pupa girl.
doll, puppet, fem. of pupus. Cf. {Puppet}.]
1. (Zo["o]l.) Any insect in that stage of its metamorphosis
   which usually immediately precedes the adult, or imago,
   stage.
Note: Among insects belonging to the higher orders, as the
      Hymenoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, the pupa is inactive
      and takes no food; in the lower orders it is active and
      takes food, and differs little from the imago except in
      the rudimentary state of the sexual organs, and of the
      wings in those that have wings when adult. The term
      pupa is sometimes applied to other invertebrates in
      analogous stages of development.
2. (Zo["o]l.) A genus of air-breathing land snails having an
   elongated spiral shell.
{Coarctate}, or {Obtected}, {pupa}, a pupa which is incased
   in the dried-up skin of the larva, as in many Diptera.
{Masked pupa}, a pupa whose limbs are bound down and partly
   concealed by a chitinous covering, as in Lepidoptera.