BLACKFLY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Blackfly

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noun

blackfly, black fly n. (Zool.)

In the United States, a small, venomous, two-winged fly of the genus Simulium of several species, exceedingly abundant and troublesome in the northern forests; called also buffalo gnat. The larvae are aquatic. It sucks the blood of birds as well as humans and other mammals.

A black plant louse, as the bean aphis (Aphis fabae), which infests e. g. beans and sugar beets; called also bean aphid.

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Etymology of 'Blackfly'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Blackfly" Quotes from Famous Books

... machinations of our guide, who pretended it was too late in the day to cross the jungles on ahead, either by the road to the source or the palace, and therefore would not move till the morning; then, leaving us, on the pretext of business, he vanished, and was never seen again. A small black fly, with thick shoulders and bullet-head, infests the place, and torments the naked arms and legs of the people with its sharp stings to an extent that must render life miserable ...

— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke

... affords the angler good sport—he is a much better-flavoured fish than the Chub, though not comparable to Trout. He delights in rapid streams, and during the Summer months is rarely found in deep water. The Grayling will take the same flies and bait as Trout—a little black fly is an especial favourite with him, but he will spring a long way out of water to catch a fly of any description which may be sporting above him. The Grayling spawns at the end of ...

— The Teesdale Angler • R Lakeland

... them a bother, and—it goes to my heart to say it—a whole sitting was eaten by the rats in consequence. Everything seemed to go wrong. The butter was twice as long a-coming as ever I knowed it, and the broad beans got black fly, and father lost half his hay with the weather. If it had been me that had done something unkind, father would have said it was a Providence on me. But, of course, I knew better than to speak up to my own father, with his ...

— In Homespun • Edith Nesbit

Words linked to "Blackfly" : gnat, aphid, Simulium, genus Aphis, Aphis fabae, bean aphid, Aphis