Emilio wrote:
In accordance with Webster, the dictionary, that is; dioecious refers
to plants, as each plant having staminate flowers or pistillate
flowers ie. female flowers and male flowers.
 
Hi Emilio -
Webster missed the biological boat on this one.
The term dioceous, meaning separate sexes, is widely used in both
botany and zoology.  A few quick examples from my bookshelves:
A Textbook of Entomology by H.H. Ross states "Insects are primarily
dioeceous, though a few rare cases are known of hermaphroditic
insects."
Libby Hyman's classic series "The Invertebrates" uses the term
frequently.  A few quotes from Volume VI, Mollusca:
"The solenogasters are hermaphroditic with a pair of hermaphroditic
gonads, except the Chaetodermatidae, which are dioeceous, with single
or paired gonads."
"Chitons are dioeceous with the exception of Trachydermon raymondi,
found by Heath to be hermaphroditic."
"Neopilina is strictly dioeceous, with two pairs of lobulated
gonads."
"Prosobranchs are in general dioceous."
And a few quotes from Invertebrate Zoology by R. Barnes:
"The majority of pelecypods are dioeceous."
"All chitons are dioeceous."
"Many gastropods are dioeceous."
(in reference to starfish): "With few exceptions, asteroids are
dioeceous, having ten gonads, two in each arm."
(in reference to marine worms): "Most polychaetes are dioeceous."
(in reference to roundworms): "Most nematodes are dioeceous."
 
So there you have it.  In plants dioeceous means that a single plant
of the species will produce only staminate (pollen producing, male)
flowers, OR only pistillate (ovule-containing, female) flowers.  In
animals it means that a given individual of the species produces only
male reproductive cells (sperm) OR only female reproductive cells
(ova).  Likewise the term hermaphroditic, meaning that one individual
organism produces both kinds of cells) is used in both botany and
zoology.
 
A brief grammatical observation - the adjective hermaphroditic can
refer either to a species or to an individual organism; therefore we
have the noun hermaphrodite, to designate an individual of a
hermaphroditic species.  However, the term dioeceous can refer only
to a species - an individual cannot be dioeceous.  Therefore, there
is no single noun meaning "an individual of a dioeceous species".
Such an individual can only be referred to as "a female" or "a male".
 
Paul M.