gallfly

American

[gawl-flahy] / ˈgɔlˌflaɪ /

noun

any of various insects that deposit their eggs in plants, causing the formation of galls.

gallfly British

/ ˈɡɔːlˌflaɪ /

noun

any of several small insects that produce galls in plant tissues, such as the gall wasp and gall midge

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

gallflies

plural

Etymology

Origin of gallfly

First recorded in 1815–25; gall ³ + fly ¹

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

gallflies

Centhorhynchus, a beetle which attacks Crucifers, Cynips and allied "gallflies" of Oaks, and the notorious Phylloxera.

From Disease in Plants by H. Marshall Ward

To this order belong the gallflies, the sawflies, the ichneumons, and, above all, the ants and bees.

From On the Origin and Metamorphoses of Insects by Sir John Lubbock

Rhodites, rō-dī′tēz, n. a genus of gallflies infesting the rose.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023