LEPIDOPTERAN (lepidoptera)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: lepidoptera   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lepidopteran mean? 

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

1. insect that in the adult state has four wings more or less covered with tiny scales

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• LEPIDOPTERAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Insect that in the adult state has four wings more or less covered with tiny scales

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

lepidopteran; lepidopteron; lepidopterous insect

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

insect (small air-breathing arthropod)

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

butterfly (diurnal insect typically having a slender body with knobbed antennae and broad colorful wings)

moth (typically crepuscular or nocturnal insect having a stout body and feathery or hairlike antennae)

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

Lepidoptera; order Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies)

 Context examples 

A family of double-stranded DNA viruses that replicate in lepidopteran larvae.

(Baculoviridae, NCI Thesaurus)

Peculiarly rich in the coleoptera and in the lepidoptera, forty-six new species of the one and ninety-four of the other had been secured in the course of a few weeks.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)