muscid

[ muhs-id ]

adjective

1. belonging or pertaining to the Muscidae, the family of dipterous insects that includes the common housefly.

noun

1. any muscid fly.

muscid

/ ˈmʌsɪd /

noun

1. any fly of the dipterous family Muscidae, including the housefly and tsetse fly

adjective

1. of, relating to, or belonging to the Muscidae

Word History and Origins

Origin of muscid¹

First recorded in 1890–95, muscid is from the New Latin word Muscidae name of the family. See Musca, -id ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of muscid¹

C19: via New Latin from Latin musca fly

Example Sentences

The eruciform larva of the Orthorrhapha leads on to the headless vermiform maggot of the Cyclorrhapha, and in the latter sub-order we find metamorphosis carried to its extreme point, the muscid flies being the most highly specialized of all the Hexapoda as regards structure, while their maggots are the most degraded of all insect larvae.

From Project Gutenberg

Histolysis and Histogenesis.—The process of destruction of the larval tissues was first studied in the forms where metamorphosis is greatest and most abrupt, viz. in the Muscid Diptera.

From Project Gutenberg

Tur′nip-fly, a muscid fly whose maggots burrow in turnip-roots.

From Project Gutenberg

Blow′-ball, the downy head of a dandelion in seed; Blow′er, a metal plate put upon the upper part of a fireplace, so as to increase the draught through the fire: a machine for driving a blast of air, as into a furnace; Blow′-fly, or Flesh-fly, an insect of the order Diptera, and of the large family Muscid�, to which the common house-fly and blue-bottle belong.—p.adj.

From Project Gutenberg

The nervous system is remarkably concentrated in some beetles, the abdominal ganglia showing a tendency to become shifted forward and crowded together, and in certain chafers all the thoracic and abdominal ganglia are fused into a single nerve-centre situated in the thorax,—a degree of specialization only matched in the insectan class among the Hemiptera and some muscid flies.

From Project Gutenberg