A hormone produced in arthropods that triggers molting and growth; also called ecdysone, this hormone controls the shedding of the exoskeleton.
From ecdysis (molting) + '-on' (suffix for chemical compounds). The term was created when scientists isolated and named the hormone responsible for triggering the molting process in insects.
Ecdyson is literally the chemical remote control for insect development—scientists discovered that if you inject it into insects or remove it, you can completely mess up their molting cycles, and this led to pesticides that disrupt insect growth without poisoning them.
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