Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

165 results found

tsetse fly

(Encyclopedia)tsetse fly tsĕtˈsē [key], name for any of several bloodsucking African flies of the genus Glossina, and in the same family as the housefly. The larva of the tsetse fly develops inside the body of t...

fly, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)fly, name commonly used for any of a variety of winged insects, but properly restricted to members of the order Diptera, the true flies, which includes the housefly, gnat, midge, mosquito, and tsetse ...

trypanosomiasis

(Encyclopedia)trypanosomiasis trəpănˌəsōmīˈəsis [key], infectious disease caused by a protozoan organism, the trypanosome, which exists as a parasite in the blood of a number of vertebrate hosts. The three ...

Hessian fly

(Encyclopedia)Hessian fly, European gall gnat, Phytophaga destructor, so named because it was first observed in America shortly after the Hessian troops landed on Long Island in the American Revolution. It is one o...

fruit fly

(Encyclopedia)fruit fly, common name for any of the flies of the families Tephritidae and Drosophilidae. All fruit flies are very small insects that lay their eggs in various plant tissues. The Tephritidae contains...

gall fly

(Encyclopedia)gall fly: see fruit fly.

ichneumon fly

(Encyclopedia)ichneumon fly ĭkno͞oˈmən [key], common name for a family of insects, related to the wasps, whose larvae are parasitic on many other insects. Over 3,000 species of ichneumon flies, also known as ic...

crane fly

(Encyclopedia)crane fly, true fly resembling a mosquito, often called daddy longlegs because of its six long, delicate legs. (The harvestman, also called daddy longlegs, belongs to an unrelated order.) Most species...

Browse by Subject