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A small beetle (Anobium tessellatum and other allied species). By forcibly striking its head against woodwork it makes a ticking sound, which is a call of the sexes to each other, but has been imagined by superstitious people to presage death.

ts, skins, woolens, and furs. The most common species is D. lardarius, known as the bacon beetle.

Pertaining to or resembling the genus Dermestes. The carpet beetle, called the buffalo moth, is a dermestoid beetle. Pop. Sci. Monthly.

ansion, shaped somewhat like an apron. -- Devil's coachhorse. (Zoöl.) (a) The black rove beetle (Ocypus olens). [Eng.] (b) A large, predacious, hemipterous insect (Prionotus cristatus); the wheel bug. [U.S.] -- Devil's darning-needle. (Zoöl.) See under Darn, v. t. -- Devil's fingers, Devil's hand (Zoöl.), the common…

That dives or is used or diving. Diving beetle (Zoöl.), any beetle of the family Dytiscidæ, which habitually lives under water; - - called also water tiger. -- Diving bell, a hollow inverted vessel, sometimes bell-shaped, in which men may descend and work under water, respiration being sustained by the compressed air…

A large European scaraboid beetle (Geotrupes stercorarius), which makes a droning noise while flying. The name is also applied to allied American species, as the June bug. Called also dorr, dorbeetle, or dorrbeetle, dorbug, dorrfly, and buzzard clock.

The European goatsucker; -- so called because it eats the dor beetle. See Goatsucker. [Written also dorrhawk.] Booth.

The dorbeetle; also, a drone or an idler. See 1st Dor. Robynson (More's Utopia).

A genus of plant-eating beetles, including the potato beetle. See Potato beetle.

To utter or make a low, dull, monotonous, humming or murmuring sound. Where the beetle wheels his droning flight. T. Gray.

One of a group of gigantic, horned beetles, including Dynastus Neptunus, and the Hercules beetle (D. Hercules) of tropical America, which grow to be six inches in length.

Any beetle of the family Elateridæ, having the habit, when laid on the back, of giving a sudden upward spring, by a quick movement of the articulation between the abdomen and thorax; -- called also click beetle, spring beetle, and snapping beetle.

.), at Brighton, England, abounding in fossil remains of elephants. Mantell. -- Elephant beetle (Zoöl.), any very large beetle of the genus Goliathus (esp. G. giganteus), of the family Scarabæidæ. They inhabit West Africa. -- Elephant fish (Zoöl.), a chimæroid fish (Callorhynchus antarcticus), with a proboscis-like p…

the common American or white elm is U. Americana; the slippery or red elm, U. fulva. Elm beetle (Zoöl.), one of several species of beetles (esp. Galeruca calmariensis), which feed on the leaves of the elm. -- Elm borer (Zoöl.), one of several species of beetles of which the larvæ bore into the wood or under the bark…

Resembling a beetle's wing case.

A genus of small beetles, one species of which (E. viti) is very injurious to the vines in the wine countries of Europe.

keep table furniture in place on the cabin table in bad weather. Ham. Nav. Encyc. Fiddle beetle (Zoöl.), a Japanese carabid beetle (Damaster blaptoides); -- so called from the form of the body. -- Fiddle block (Naut.), a long tackle block having two sheaves of different diameters in the same plane, instead of side by…

A genus of small beetles, of which one species (the grapevine Fidia, F. longipes) is very injurious to vines in America.

A large beetle (Allorhina nitida) which in the Southern United States destroys figs. The elytra are velvety green with pale borders.

-- Fire bar, a grate bar. -- Fire basket, a portable grate; a cresset. Knight. -- Fire beetle. (Zoöl.) See in the Vocabulary. -- Fire blast, a disease of plants which causes them to appear as if burnt by fire. -- Fire box, the chamber of a furnace, steam boiler, etc., for the fire. -- Fire brick, a refractory bri…