- Bloodsucking insect - Insect type - Parasitic insect - Small bloodsucking insect with a round, wingless body - Small thing that nips in the night - A wingless, bloodsucking, hemipterous insect (Cimex
Lectularius), sometimes infesting houses and especially beds. See
Illustration in Appendix.
- A small beetle (Anobium tessellatum and other allied
species). By forcibly striking its head against woodwork it makes a
ticking sound, which is a call of the sexes to each other, but has been
imagined by superstitious people to presage death. - A small wingless insect, of the family Psocidae, which
makes a similar but fainter sound; -- called also deathtick. - The guard set over a criminal before his execution.
- A coleopterous insect of the genus Lampyris; esp., the
wingless females and larvae of the two European species (L. noctiluca,
and L. splendidula), which emit light from some of the abdominal
segments.