pyralis

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See also: Pyralis

English

Photinus pyralis
Pyralis centralis

Noun

pyralis (plural pyralises or pyralides)

  1. A species of firefly, Photinus pyralis
    • 1922, E.-L. Bouvier, The Psychic Life of Insects, page 9:
      As Loeb has shown by many experiments, the phototropic phenomena of animals differ not at all from those of plants, and they carry no more psychism in a polyp or in a pyralis than in a geranium or in a volvox.
    • 1968, The Conservationist - Volumes 23-24, page 169:
      If you have an opportunity to experiment with Photinus pyralis, try the following: Start a male toward you by answering him properly, that is, as a pyralis female would answer him, once or twice.
    • 1986, Robert W. Mitchell, Nicholas S. Thompson, Deception: Perspectives on Human and Nonhuman Deceit, →ISBN, page 114:
      When a pyralis female sees a flash of the appropriate characteristics, she waits 2 seconds and then emits her own half-second flash.
  2. A moth of the genus Pyralis.
    • 1850, Gardeners Chronicle & New Horticulturist - Volume 10, page 277:
      This once happened in a hemp field destroyed by a pyralis, described by me in a special memoir.
    • 1907, Sugar - Volume 9, page 333:
      At first there was a belief that the caterpillar was that of a pyralis like that which caused such great loss to beet growers in southern Russia, Roumania and North America.
    • 1962, Memorie della Società entomologica italiana:
      What would have been the opinion of the public, seeing e.g. a butterfly and a pyralis placed in the same genus ?

Anagrams

Latin

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek πυραλίς (puralís).

Pronunciation

Noun

pyralis f (genitive pyralidis); third declension

  1. a winged insect that was supposed to live in fire
Declension

Third-declension noun.

Etymology 2

pyra +‎ -ālis

Pronunciation

Adjective

pyrālis (neuter pyrāle); third-declension two-termination adjective

  1. (relational) funeral pyre
Declension

Third-declension two-termination adjective.

References

  • pyralis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • pyralis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.