Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having long antennae.
  • adjective Of or relating to the longhorn beetles.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having long antennæ; specifically, of or pertaining to the Longicornes or Longicornia.
  • noun A longicorn beetle; a member of the Longicornia.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Long-horned; pertaining to the Longicornia.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective zoology Long-horned.
  • adjective zoology Of or relating to the Cerambycidae (longhorn beetles).
  • noun One of the Cerambycidae (longhorn beetles).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun long-bodied beetle having very long antennae

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From New Latin Longicornia, former group name : Latin longus, long; see longitude + Latin cornū, horn; see ker- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin longus ("long") + cornu ("horn"). Compare French longicorne.

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Examples

  • Invertebrates, especially insects, are quite diverse, and, in the uplands of the Caucasus, one can observe many examples of the varied insect life, including an endemic butterfly (Parnassius nordmanni) and the Rosalia longicorn beetle (Rosalia alpine, VU).

    Biological diversity in the Caucasus 2008

  • The rain has washed the ground away from under its off legs, so that it tilts; and there were quantities of large longicorn beetles about during the night — the sort with spiny backs; they kept on getting themselves hitched on to my blankets and when I wanted civilly to remove them they made a horrid fizzing noise and showed fight — cocking their horns in a defiant way.

    Travels in West Africa 2003

  • What formerly would have been a repulsive object (such as a great longicorn or beetle) is worn with ease by the belles of our time.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 530, February 27, 1886 Various

  • If I had stopped to guess I would probably have considered the author a longicorn beetle or some fiddling orthopter.

    Edge of the Jungle William Beebe 1919

  • Coccinella (lady-bird), which swarms at Dorjiling, does not ascend so high, and a Clytus was the only longicorn.

    Himalayan Journals — Complete 1864

  • The curious and very rare little longicorn, Tethlimmena aliena, quite unlike its nearest allies in the same country, is an exact copy on a somewhat smaller scale of a malacoderm, Lygistopterus amabilis, both found at Chontales.

    Darwinism (1889) Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

  • The rain has washed the ground away from under its off legs, so that it tilts; and there were quantities of large longicorn beetles about during the night -- the sort with spiny backs; they kept on getting themselves hitched on to my blankets and when I wanted civilly to remove them they made a horrid fizzing noise and showed fight -- cocking their horns in a defiant way.

    Travels in West Africa Mary H. Kingsley 1881

  • "A splendid longicorn," he said, fishing a pill-box from his pocket, and carefully imprisoning his captive.

    Middy and Ensign George Manville Fenn 1870

  • The beetles furnish us with many species of large size, and of the most brilliant metallic lustre, among which the Tmesisternus mirabilis, a longicorn beetle of a golden green colour; the excessively brilliant rose-chafers, Lomaptera wallacei and Anacamptorhina fulgida; one of the handsomest of the Buprestidae,

    The Malay Archipelago, the land of the orang-utan and the bird of paradise; a narrative of travel, with studies of man and nature — Volume 2 Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

  • Many other species of Callia also resemble other malacoderms; and the longicorn genus Lycidola has been named from its resemblance to various species of the Lycidae, one of the species here figured (Lycidola belti) being a good mimic of Calopteron corrugatum and of several other allied species, all being of about the same size and found at Chontales.

    Darwinism (1889) Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

Comments

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  • "'...I found a large variety of beetles. Here ... is a selection I beg you will accept.'...

    "'Here's glory for you!' he cried. 'Longicorns to a man: no, these must belong to the Cleridae—such colours!'"

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Truelove, 188

    March 11, 2008