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DIPTEROUS INSECT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Insects having usually a single pair of functional wings (anterior pair) with the posterior pair reduced to small knobbed structures and mouth parts adapted for sucking or lapping or piercing
Synonyms:
dipteran; dipteron; dipterous insect; two-winged insects
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("dipterous insect" is a kind of...):
insect (small air-breathing arthropod)
Meronyms (parts of "dipterous insect"):
balancer; halter; haltere (either of the rudimentary hind wings of dipterous insects; used for maintaining equilibrium during flight)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dipterous insect"):
gall gnat; gall midge; gallfly (fragile mosquito-like flies that produce galls on plants)
fly (two-winged insects characterized by active flight)
bee killer; robber fly (swift predatory fly having a strong body like a bee with the proboscis hardened for sucking juices of other insects captured on the wing)
fruit fly; pomace fly (any of numerous small insects whose larvae feed on fruits)
hippoboscid; louse fly (bloodsucking dipterous fly parasitic on birds and mammals)
mosquito (two-winged insect whose female has a long proboscis to pierce the skin and suck the blood of humans and animals)
gnat (any of various small biting flies: midges; biting midges; black flies; sand flies)
fungus gnat (mosquito-like insect whose larvae feed on fungi or decaying vegetation)
fungus gnat; sciara; sciarid (minute blackish gregarious flies destructive to mushrooms and seedlings)
crane fly; daddy longlegs (long-legged slender flies that resemble large mosquitoes but do not bite)
Holonyms ("dipterous insect" is a member of...):
Diptera; order Diptera (a large order of insects having a single pair of wings and sucking or piercing mouths; includes true flies and mosquitoes and gnats and crane flies)
