Insects

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Insects

See also ants; bees; biology; butterflies; zoology.

acarophobia

a fear of itching or of the mites or ticks that cause it.

aeroscepsy, aeroscepsis

perception by means of the air, said to be a function of the antennae of insects.

bugology

Informal. entomology. — bugologist, n.

coleopterology

the branch of entomology that studies beetles and weevils. — coleopterological, adj. — coleopterist, n.

dipterology

the branch of entomology that studies the order of insects Diptera, including houseflies, mosquitoes, and gnats.

entomology

the branch of zoology that studies insects. Also called insectology. — entomologist, n. — entomologie, entomological, adj.

entomomania

an abnormal love of insects.

entomophobia

an abnormal fear of insects.

ephemeron

anything shortlived, or of brief duration, especially certain types of insects such as the mayfly.

gynandromorphism

the condition of having one half of the body male and the other half female, as certain insects. — gynandromorph, n. — gynandromorphous, adj.

hemipterology

the branch of entomology that studies the order Hemiptera, including bedbugs, squashbugs, and aphids.

heteromorphism

1. the quality of differing in form from the standard or norm.
2. the condition of existing in different forms at different stages of development, as certain insects. — heteromorphic, adj.

hymenopterology

the branch of entomology that studies the order Hytnenoptera, including bees, wasps, and ants.

hypermetamorphosis

a process by which an insect goes through more than the usual number of transformations, as the larva being metamorphosed more than once.

ichneumonology

the study of the life of the ichneumon fly.

insecticide

a substance used for killing insects. — insecticidal, adj.

insectology

entomology.

myrmecology

the study of ants.

neoteny

the capacity or state of becoming sexually mature in the larval stage. — neotenous, adj.

neuropterology

the branch of entomology that studies the order Neuroptera, including lacewings and ant lions.

orthopterology

the branch of entomology that studies the order Orthoptera, including cockroaches, grasshoppers, and mantises.

pediculophobia

an abnormal fear of lice. Also called phthiriophobia.

pediculosis

an infestation with lice; lousiness. — pediculous, adj.

pesticide

any chemical substance used for killing pests, as insects, weeds, etc.

phthiriophobia

pediculophobia.

polymorphism

the occurrence of several forms or colors in one species of insect. — polymorphous, adj.

stridulation

1. an action characteristic of some insects of producing a shrill, grating noise by chafing a serrated part of the body against a hard part.
2. the noise so produced. — stridulator, n. — stridulant, stridulatory, adj.

vespiary

1. a wasps’ nest.
2. a community or colony of wasps.

xenobiosis

communal life, such as that of ants, in which colonies of different species live together but do not share the raising of the young. — xenobiotic, adj.

Insects

See Also: ANIMALS

Beetles and insects with legs like grass stems —Ernest Hemingway
A big black ant, shaped like a dumbbell —John Gunther
Black beetles … crawled in all directions like animated ink —Harold Adams
Fireflies begin to rise … exactly like the bubbles in champagne —Elizabeth Bishop
Fireflies dazzle the night like red pepper —W. P. Kinsella
Fireflies glow like planets in the moist, silent darkness —W. P. Kinsella
Fleas are, like the remainder of the universe, a divine mystery —Anatole France
A fly is as untamable as a hyena —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Insects … crooned like old women —Stephen Crane
Mosquitoes … as big as mulberries —William Styron
Moths as large and white as our hands —James Crumley
Nothing is so like a soul as a bee. It goes from flower to flower as a soul from star to star, and it gathers honey as a soul gathers light —Victor Hugo
Spiders which floated like cameos in their jars —Pat Conroy
Yellow butterflies flickered along the shade like flecks of sun —William Faulkner

References in classic literature ?

Rio de Janeiro -- Excursion north of Cape Frio -- Great Evaporation -- Slavery -- Botofogo Bay -- Terrestrial Planariae -- Clouds on the Corcovado -- Heavy Rain -- Musical Frogs -- Phosphorescent Insects -- Elater, springing powers of -- Blue Haze -- Noise made by a Butterfly -- Entomology -- Ants -- Wasp killing a Spider -- Parasitical Spider -- Artifices of an Epeira -- Gregarious Spider -- Spider with an unsymmetrical Web.

-- In returning we spent two days at Socego, and I employed them in collecting insects in the forest.

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'--then you don't like all insects?' the Gnat went on, as quietly as if nothing had happened.

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"Knowing no better, I used my arms as well as my legs for walking, and crawled under the edges of stones or hid among the roots of grasses with no thought beyond finding a few insects smaller than myself to feed upon.

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We behold the face of nature bright with gladness, we often see superabundance of food; we do not see, or we forget, that the birds which are idly singing round us mostly live on insects or seeds, and are thus constantly destroying life; or we forget how largely these songsters, or their eggs, or their nestlings, are destroyed by birds and beasts of prey; we do not always bear in mind, that though food may be now superabundant, it is not so at all seasons of each recurring year.

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The long pipes gave a simultaneous movement, like the antennae of startled insects, and every man present, not excepting even the sceptical farrier, had an impression that he saw, not Silas Marner in the flesh, but an apparition; for the door by which Silas had entered was hidden by the high-screened seats, and no one had noticed his approach.

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for, should these insects alight, it will be laid waste."

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They observed by my teeth, which they viewed with great exactness, that I was a carnivorous animal; yet most quadrupeds being an overmatch for me, and field mice, with some others, too nimble, they could not imagine how I should be able to support myself, unless I fed upon snails and other insects, which they offered, by many learned arguments, to evince that I could not possibly do.

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Now, it never occurred to me to wish for a nearer inspection of these large insects, with their long black claws, for I always feared to find under their stone wings some little human genius fagged to death with cabals, factions, and government intrigues.

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that I, who can wage war successfully with the hugest beasts, should perish myself from this spider, the most inconsiderable of insects!"

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While we were lying there against the warm bank, a little insect of the palest, frailest green hopped painfully out of the buffalo grass and tried to leap into a bunch of bluestem.

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I want now to tell you, gentlemen, whether you care to hear it or not, why I could not even become an insect. I tell you solemnly, that I have many times tried to become an insect.