gall midge

American  

noun

1. any of several dipterous insects of the family Cecidomyiidae, the larvae of which form characteristic galls on plants.

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gall midge British  

noun

1. Also called: gallfly.   gall gnat.  any of various small fragile mosquito-like dipterous flies constituting the widely distributed family Cecidomyidae, many of which have larvae that produce galls on plants See also Hessian fly

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Etymology

Origin of gall midge

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

Another dogwood leaf may be in service to a different insect altogether: the gall midge, Parallelodiplosis subtruncata, a mosquito-like fly that makes blister galls.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 2, 2022

The robot’s disklike body does not resemble that of a gall midge larva, but it jumps like one.

From New York Times • Dec. 7, 2021

For inspiration, the researchers looked to gall midge larvae, maggots that miraculously hurl themselves across distances 30 times as long as their loglike bodies, which are one-tenth of an inch long.

From New York Times • Dec. 7, 2021

In the unusually hot and dry year of 2010, for example, a previously rare pest, the barley stem gall midge, besieged Syrian farms.

From Nature • Sep. 25, 2013

In nature it is kept in check by various predators such as ladybugs, a gall midge, predaceous mites and several pirate bugs, all of them extremely sensitive to insecticides.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson