scale insect
any of numerous small, plant-sucking homopterous insects of the superfamily Coccoidea, the males of which are winged and the females wingless, often covered by a waxy secretion resembling scales.
Origin of scale insect
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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use scale insect in a sentence
Man can dodge Nature as the scale insect cannot, but higher forms of life can, and man the most effectively of all.
The Inhumanity of Socialism | Edward F. AdamsMother has heard of a scale insect out in California which has been a great nuisance to fruit-growers.
Little Busybodies | Jeanette Augustus Marks and Julia MoodyDr. Lutz says that the manna which fed the Children of Israel was honeydew secreted by a scale insect, and that it is still eaten.
Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts | Girl ScoutsCochineal is the dried scale-insect Coccus cacti, which lives on certain of the cactus plants of Mexico and elsewhere.
It is a minute scale insect the size of a small pinhead, shield-shaped, with a raised center.
The Practical Garden-Book | C. E. Hunn
British Dictionary definitions for scale insect
any small homopterous insect of the family Coccidae and related families, which typically live and feed on plants and secrete a protective scale around themselves. Many species, such as the San Jose scale, are important pests
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for scale insect
Any of various small homopterous insects of the superfamily Coccoidea that suck the juices of plants, the females of which secrete and remain under waxy scales on plant tissue.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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