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aphid

(Encyclopedia)aphid or plant louse, tiny, usually green, soft-bodied, pear-shaped insect injurious to vegetation. It is also called greenfly and blight. Aphids are mostly under 1⁄4 in. (6 mm) long. Some are wingl...

greenfly

(Encyclopedia)greenfly: see aphid.

phylloxera

(Encyclopedia)phylloxera fĭlŏkˈsĭrə [key], small, sap-eating, greenish insect of the genus Phylloxera, closely related to the aphid. Phylloxeras feed on leaves and roots, and many species produce galls on deci...

parthenogenesis

(Encyclopedia)parthenogenesis pärˌthənōjĕnˈəsĭs [key] [Gr.,=virgin birth], in biology, a form of reproduction in which the ovum develops into a new individual without fertilization. Natural parthenogenesis ...

symbiosis

(Encyclopedia)symbiosis sĭmbēōˈsĭs [key], the habitual living together of organisms of different species. The term is usually restricted to a dependent relationship that is beneficial to both participants (als...

louse

(Encyclopedia)louse, common name for members of either of two distinct orders of wingless, parasitic, disease-carrying insects. Lice of both groups are small and flattened with short legs adapted for clinging to th...

insect

(Encyclopedia)CE5 External anatomy of a female grasshopper, representative of the class Insecta insect, invertebrate animal of the class Insecta of the phylum Arthropoda. Like other arthropods, an insect has a ...

ant

(Encyclopedia)ant, any of the 2,500 insect species constituting the family Formicidae of the order Hymenoptera, to which the bee and the wasp also belong. Like most members of the order, ants have a “wasp waist,...

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