night-biter

See also: night biter

English

WOTD – 28 June 2016

yellow fever mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti)

Alternative forms

• night biter

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /naɪt ˈbaɪtə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /naɪt ˈbaɪtɚ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: night-bi‧ter

Noun

night-biter (plural night-biters)

1. An animal, especially an insect such as a mosquito, that bites during the night.
   • 1931 March 6, Clayton [Arbuthnot] Lane, Housing and Malaria: A Critical Summary of the Literature Dealing with the Subject (Series of League of Nations Publications; 3), Geneva: League of Nations Health Organisation, →OCLC, page 34:

     The anopheles associated by experience with malaria are, in the main, house-haunters and night-biters, and at night their victim mainly spends his time in a house, circumstances which make it likely that the house is important in the transmission of malaria.

   • 1954 June, Gardner Soule, “How to fight mosquitoes”, in Popular Science, volume 164, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Popular Science Publishing Company, →ISSN, page 112:

     She [the mosquito] may be a night-biter or a day-biter. She may give an alarm: a hum made by the beating of her wings. Or she may be absolutely silent.

   • 1965, Charles Wilcocks, “Transmission of Disease by Arthropods: Worms, Protozoa, Viruses, Bacteria”, in Medical Advance, Public Health and Social Evolution (The Commonwealth and International Library, Liberal Studies Division), Oxford: Pergamon Press, →OCLC, page 160:

     He argued that since these embryos are so much more numerous in the blood at night than in the daytime, the insect must probably be a night-biter, and with this in mind he began to examine the commonest night-biting insect he knew, the mosquito Culex fatigans.

   • 1977, Charlie [J. Charles] Davis, Hook Up: A Complete Guide to Southern California Ocean Sportfishing, Seattle, Wash.: Outdoor Empire Pub., →ISBN, page 110:

     [S]ome species of fish are night biters and some are not. Black sea bass are good night biters.

   • 2000, Mary Vanderkooi, Village Medical Manual: A Layman's Guide to Health Care in Developing Countries, 5th edition, volumes I (Principles and Procedures), Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, →ISBN, page 198:

     There are 3 main kinds of disease-transmitting mosquitoes: Anopheles, Culex, and Aedes. […] Anopheles are night biters and breed in clean water; Anopheles mosquitoes carry malaria and some filariasis.

   • 2008, Vicente Belizario Jr., “Epidemiology of Malaria in the Philippines”, in Gisela P. Padilla Concepcion, Eduardo A. Padlan, Caesar A[ya-ay] Saloma, editors, Selected Essays on Science and Technology for Securing a Better Philippines, volume I, Diliman, Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, →ISBN, page 210:

     In the Philippines, the principal malaria vector is Anopheles minimus var. flavirostris, a night-biter which breeds in slow-flowing, partly shaded streams that abound in the foothill areas.

   • 2015, Dick Galbraith, Curim Sickness Belong Eye, Corpus Christi, Tex.: Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co., →ISBN, page 171:

     In Honiara all the ward lights in the hospital were turned on at sunset and stayed on all night—an attempt to keep the night biter at bay: a practice that was only partially effective.