Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of a number of radicicolous or root-feeding plant-lice of the family Aphididæ, and usually of the subfamily Pemphiginæ.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The tidy housewife usually places the ant in the same category with cockroaches and bed-bugs and the corn growers attribute much of the injury to young corn to the work of the small cornfield ant which acts as a shepherd of the corn root-louse.

    An Elementary Study of Insects Leonard Haseman

  • Fortunately we have many which defy this pestiferous little root-louse, and European vine-growers have been importing them by the million.

    The Home Acre Edward Payson Roe 1863

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  • "It has an above-ground summer form which is furnished with a flocculent excretion of white wax."

    --from the Century Dictionry

    January 14, 2011