Word.ws English Dictionary

pterophorid

US/ˌteɹ.əˈfoɹ.ɪd/

pterophorid noun: any moth of the family Pterophoridae.

pterophorid: any moth of the family Pterophoridae
Image: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

pterophorid (plural pterophorids)

  1. Any moth of the family Pterophoridae.
    • No kinematic adaptations particular to the extraordinary wing structure of pterophorids are evident, and adjacent wing lobes appear to form a continuous surface (Norberg, 1972b).2018, Robert Dudley, The Biomechanics of Insect Flight: Form, Function, Evolution
    • Of these, only one pterophorid appeared to probe inside flowers from both species, starting on P. dilatata then moving to P. stricta; however, no pollinia removal or transfer could be seen.2022 May 9, Genevieve E. van der Voort, Scott R. Gilmore, Jamieson C. Gorrell, Jasmine K. Janes, “Continuous video capture, and pollinia tracking, in Platanthera (Orchidaceae) reveal new insect...
    Synonyms:
    plume moth

Adjective

pterophorid (comparative more pterophorid, superlative most pterophorid)

  1. Relating to the Pterophoridae family of moths.
    • The realized sample sizes were far lower (64 and 95, respectively); most of the tagged flowers were not recovered in 2016 due to herbivory from an outbreak of Heliothis phloxiphaga, the most common herbivore (LoPresti et al., 2015), as well as consumption by brush rabbits (Sylvilagus bachmani), and...2019 August 12, E. F. LoPresti, J. Goidell, J. M. Mola, M. L. Page, C. D. Specht, C. Stuligross, M. G. Weber, N. M. Williams, R. Karban, “A lever action hypothesis for pendulous hummingbird flowers...
    • Five videos showed insects moving between both P. dilatata and P. stricta: two with syrphid flies that hovered near, or landed on, flowers of both species, and three showed pterophorid moths landing on both species.2022 May 9, Genevieve E. van der Voort, Scott R. Gilmore, Jamieson C. Gorrell, Jasmine K. Janes, “Continuous video capture, and pollinia tracking, in Platanthera (Orchidaceae) reveal new insect...

Synonyms of pterophorid

Forms of pterophorid

Noun
pluralpterophorids
Adjective
comparativemore pterophorid
superlativemost pterophorid

Origin of pterophorid

Borrowed from translingual Pterophoridae, from the type genus of Pterophorus, from the root words of Ancient Greek πτερόν (pterón, “feather, wing”) + Ancient Greek -φόρος (-phóros, “-bearing”).

Questions about pterophorid

What does pterophorid mean?
Pterophorid means any moth of the family Pterophoridae.
What part of speech is pterophorid?
Pterophorid can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce pterophorid?
Pterophorid is pronounced /ˌteɹ.əˈfoɹ.ɪd/ (US).
What is the plural of pterophorid?
The plural of pterophorid is pterophorids.

Words near pterophorid in the dictionary

  1. pteronophobia
  2. pteronyssid
  3. pteronyssids
  4. pterophore
  5. pterophores
  6. pterophorid
  7. pterophorids
  8. pterophyte
  9. pterophytes
  10. pteropid
  11. pteropids

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pterophorid (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “pterophorid.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pterophorid. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.