Free TranslationFree Translation
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'



Gipsy moth   Listen
noun
Gipsy moth, Gypsy moth  n.  A tussock moth (Lymantria dispar or Porthetria dispar or Ocneria dispar) native of the Old World, but accidentally introduced into eastern Massachusetts about 1869, where its caterpillars have done great damage to fruit, shade, and forest trees of many kinds. The male gypsy moth is yellowish brown, the female white, and larger than the male. In both sexes the wings are marked by dark lines and a dark lunule. The caterpillars, when full-grown, have a grayish mottled appearance, with blue tubercles on the anterior and red tubercles on the posterior part of the body, all giving rise to long yellow and black hairs. They usually pupate in July and the moth appears in August. The eggs are laid on tree trunks, rocks, etc., and hatch in the spring. Note: By 1980 the range of habitat had advanced as far south as New Jersey, and by 1995 significant populations were found as far west as the Mississippi valley. Initial population surges along the advancing front of the inhabited area cause great damage due to defoliation of trees by the caterpillars, but over time predators, disease and other natural controlling factors tend to reduce the populations to levels not so injurious to local foliage. Much money and effort has been expended trying to control, slow, or limit the spread of gypsy moths in the United States.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Gipsy moth" Quotes from Famous Books



... on the table there showing our eight hundred dollar spraying machine, the same kind used in Massachusetts in gypsy moth work. With this two men can spray about ten such trees in a day. I haven't got it down in black and white but I figured that, on those chestnuts at DuPont's, they sprayed about 600 gallons a day. Ten trees a day would make it, say, with a $2.50 man, not very high for a tree. I think it ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Third Annual Meeting • Northern Nut Growers Association

... do with his infatuation for Jane? It serves to show not only why the Workingmen's League was growing like a plague of gypsy moth, but also why Victor Dorn was not the man to be conquered by passion. Naturally, Jane, who had only the vaguest conception of the size and power of Victor Dorn's mind, could not comprehend wherein lay the difference between him and the men she read about in novels or met ...
— The Conflict • David Graham Phillips



Words linked to "Gipsy moth" :   Lymantria dispar, gypsy moth, Lymantria, lymantriid, genus Lymantria, tussock moth



Copyright © 2024 e-Free Translation.com