DIPTERAN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dipteran mean? 

• DIPTERAN (noun)
  The noun DIPTERAN has 1 sense:

1. insects having usually a single pair of functional wings (anterior pair) with the posterior pair reduced to small knobbed structures and mouth parts adapted for sucking or lapping or piercing

  Familiarity information: DIPTERAN used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DIPTERAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Insects having usually a single pair of functional wings (anterior pair) with the posterior pair reduced to small knobbed structures and mouth parts adapted for sucking or lapping or piercing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

dipteran; dipteron; dipterous insect; two-winged insects

Hypernyms ("dipteran" is a kind of...):

insect (small air-breathing arthropod)

Meronyms (parts of "dipteran"):

balancer; halter; haltere (either of the rudimentary hind wings of dipterous insects; used for maintaining equilibrium during flight)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dipteran"):

gall gnat; gall midge; gallfly (fragile mosquito-like flies that produce galls on plants)

fly (two-winged insects characterized by active flight)

bee killer; robber fly (swift predatory fly having a strong body like a bee with the proboscis hardened for sucking juices of other insects captured on the wing)

fruit fly; pomace fly (any of numerous small insects whose larvae feed on fruits)

hippoboscid; louse fly (bloodsucking dipterous fly parasitic on birds and mammals)

mosquito (two-winged insect whose female has a long proboscis to pierce the skin and suck the blood of humans and animals)

gnat (any of various small biting flies: midges; biting midges; black flies; sand flies)

fungus gnat (mosquito-like insect whose larvae feed on fungi or decaying vegetation)

fungus gnat; sciara; sciarid (minute blackish gregarious flies destructive to mushrooms and seedlings)

crane fly; daddy longlegs (long-legged slender flies that resemble large mosquitoes but do not bite)

Holonyms ("dipteran" is a member of...):

Diptera; order Diptera (a large order of insects having a single pair of wings and sucking or piercing mouths; includes true flies and mosquitoes and gnats and crane flies)