pyralis

pyralis (plural pyralises or pyralides)

1. A species of firefly, Photinus pyralis
   • 1922, E.-L. Bouvier, The Psychic Life of Insects, page 9:

     As Loeb has shown by many experiments, the phototropic phenomena of animals differ not at all from those of plants, and they carry no more psychism in a polyp or in a pyralis than in a geranium or in a volvox.

   • 1968, The Conservationist - Volumes 23-24, page 169:

     If you have an opportunity to experiment with Photinus pyralis, try the following: Start a male toward you by answering him properly, that is, as a pyralis female would answer him, once or twice.

   • 1986, Robert W. Mitchell & ‎Nicholas S. Thompson, Deception: Perspectives on Human and Nonhuman Deceit, →ISBN, page 114:

     When a pyralis female sees a flash of the appropriate characteristics, she waits 2 seconds and then emits her own half-second flash.

2. A moth of the genus Pyralis.
   • 1850, Gardeners Chronicle & New Horticulturist - Volume 10, page 277:

     This once happened in a hemp field destroyed by a pyralis, described by me in a special memoir.

   • 1907, Sugar - Volume 9, page 333:

     At first there was a belief that the caterpillar was that of a pyralis like that which caused such great loss to beet growers in southern Russia, Roumania and North America.

   • 1962, Memorie della Società entomologica italiana:

     What would have been the opinion of the public, seeing e.g. a butterfly and a pyralis placed in the same genus ?

• raspily

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpy.ra.lis/, [ˈpʏ.ra.lɪs]

pyralis f (genitive pyralidis); third declension

1. a winged insect that was supposed to live in fire

Third declension.

pyralis (neuter pyrale); third declension

1. funeral pyre (attributive)

Third declension.

• pyra

• pyralis in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• pyralis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette