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A destructive parasitic worm or insect larva.

rees large silken webs into which they retreat when at rest. Some of the species are very destructive to fruit trees. The most common American species is the larva of a bombycid moth (Clisiocampa Americana). Called also lackery caterpillar, and webworm.

inary combination of natural causes. It rises far above high-water mark and is often very destructive upon low-lying coasts.

Cruel; destructive; ruthless. More or less truculent plagues. Harvey.

Of or pertaining to the Vandals; resembling the Vandals in barbarism and destructiveness.

moth (Ægeria polistiformis), whose larva bores in the roots of the grapevine and is often destructive. -- Vine dragon, an old and fruitless branch of a vine. [Obs.] Holland. -- Vine forester (Zoöl.), any one of several species of moths belonging to Alypia and allied genera, whose larvæ feed on the leaves of the grape…

Full of waste; destructive to property; ruinous; as; wasteful practices or negligence; wasteful expenses.

eir slenderness and the uncommon hardness of the integument. Wireworms are sometimes very destructive to the roots of plants. Called also wire grub.

elonging to the genus Canis and closely allied to the common dog. The best-known and most destructive species are the European wolf (Canis lupus), the American gray, or timber, wolf (C. occidentalis), and the prairie wolf, or coyote. Wolves often hunt in packs, and may thus attack large animals and even man.…

Ruinous; destructive. [Obs.]

Causing wreck; involving ruin; destructive. "By wreckful wind." Spenser.

A genus of marine bivalves closely allied to Teredo, and equally destructive to timber. One species (Xylotrya fimbriata) is very common on the Atlantic coast of the United States.

A large noxious fly of Abyssinia, which like the tsetse fly, is destructive to cattle.

winged fly, native of Abyssinia. It is allied to the tsetse fly, and, like the latter, is destructive to cattle.