Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various plant-eating beetles of the family Chrysomelidae, which includes the Colorado potato beetle.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of or relating to the Chrysomelidæ.
- A beetle of the family Chrysomelidæ.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
leaf beetle
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun brightly colored beetle that feeds on plant leaves; larvae infest roots and stems
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[From New Latin Chrȳsomēla, type genus, from Greek khrūsomēlon, quince : khrūso-, chryso- + mēlon, apple.]
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Examples
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There’s also the agromyzid vegetable leafminer, the poinciana looper, the banana skipper, the Egyptian hibiscus mealybug, the chrysomelid cucumber beetle, several species of eumenid wasp, a nititulid beetle, a magarodid, a psyllid, a bagworm—even the names are strange.
The Song of The Dodo David Quammen 2004
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There’s also the agromyzid vegetable leafminer, the poinciana looper, the banana skipper, the Egyptian hibiscus mealybug, the chrysomelid cucumber beetle, several species of eumenid wasp, a nititulid beetle, a magarodid, a psyllid, a bagworm—even the names are strange.
The Song of The Dodo David Quammen 2004
chained_bear commented on the word chrysomelid
"In the afternoon of the fifth day the wind came off the land, bringing with it the smell of tropical river mud and green forest, but no rain, alas, only a single chrysomelid beetle on the wing, the first true South American that Martin had ever seen."
--Patrick O'Brian, The Far Side of the World, 167–168
February 20, 2008