Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Feeding on many different kinds of food.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Eating many different kinds of food; almost pamphagous or omnivorous; not monophagous.
- Specifically, of certain animal parasites, requiring more than one host in order to complete their life-cycle: contrasted with
monophagous , 2.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Eating, or subsisting on, many kinds of food.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Eating manytypes offood . - adjective Having many
host plants .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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My stink bug is, apparently, polyphagous poly=many, phage=eat, and a threat to agriculture.
Archive 2009-01-01 doyle 2009
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My stink bug is, apparently, polyphagous poly=many, phage=eat, and a threat to agriculture.
Unexpected life in January doyle 2009
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_Berberis vulgaris_, which shows that Cynthia is also a polyphagous species.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 344, August 5, 1882 Various
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Though a Bombyx be polyphagous in a state of nature, yet I think most species have a tree proper to themselves, on which they are more at home than on any other plant.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 344, August 5, 1882 Various
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Two very common species, _Pandeleteius hilaris_ and _Tanymecus confertus_, appear to be polyphagous, without preference for any particular plant.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 363, December 16, 1882 Various
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In every church, even those conducted on sound principles, there are a few polyphagous members whom no gospel preacher can supply.
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(09 / 05 / 2005) Bioinsecticide for combating a pest that affects the tomato and the green bean The tomato fruitworm is the name given to an insect pest which, due to its polyphagous character, causes very serious damage to a number of plants, such as the tomato and the green bean.
Mongabay.com News 2009
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(09 / 05 / 2005) Bioinsecticide for combating a pest that affects the tomato and the green bean The tomato fruitworm is the name given to an insect pest which, due to its polyphagous character, causes very serious damage to a number of plants, such as the tomato and the green bean.
Mongabay.com News 2009
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To control these polyphagous herbivores, farmers routinely use large amounts of broad-spectrum chemical insecticides, killing many non-target arthropods in the process.
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