wheal-worm

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See also: whealworm

English

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Wikispecies

Alternative forms

Etymology

Compound of wheal +‎ worm, after the pustule or wheal resulting from a bite.

Noun

wheal-worm (plural wheal-worms)

  1. (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
  2. (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.
  3. (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

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