wheal-worm
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See also: whealworm
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Compound of wheal + worm, after the pustule or wheal resulting from a bite.
Noun[edit]
wheal-worm (plural wheal-worms)
- (archaic) Any of various insects or arachnids the bites of which produce raised sores.
- 1658, Edward Topsell, The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents, London: E. Cotes for G. Sawbridge, XXIV Of little Lice called Syrones, Acari, and Tineæ, or Hand-worms, or Mites in living Creatures, page 1095:
- It may be ſome will think it impoſſible for theſe Wheal-worms to breed between the eyes; but we ſee it is ſo, and we finde it was done ſo formerly
- (archaic) A harvest mite, Trombicula sp.
- 1895, William Dwight Whitney with Benjamin Eli Smith, The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, volume 8, New York: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 6888:
- wheal-worm, n 1. The itch-mite acarus scabiei 2. The acarine Leptus autumnalis, or some similar harvest-bug: so named from the wheals or pimples left by its bite. See cut under harvest-mite.
- (obsolete) Acarus autumnalis, synonym of Neotrombicula autumnalis, a species of mite
- 1865, Sir Erasmus Wilson, “Malis, or cutaneous vermination”, in On Diseases of the Skin, Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, page 277:
- ACARUS AUTUMNALIS. Harvest-bug. Mower's Mite. Wheal-worm. Rouget. The acarus autumnalis is scarcely larger than the acarus scabiei
Synonyms[edit]
- (harvest mite): harvest mite, chigger, red bug
- (Acarus autumnalis): harvest bug, scarlet mite