tent caterpillar
1
6.7
- noun
- /tɛnt ˈkætərˌpɪlər/
:
oruga de tienda
- This will also help with those of you that are battling with tent caterpillars in your Peach trees and your your pear trees and apple trees.
Examples
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In early spring, tent caterpillars emerge from their silken nests and start feeding on leaves.
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How do tent caterpillar infestations look in the record?
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I read an article once about a guy who had a bumper crop of tent caterpillars.
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Tent caterpillars build communal webs in the trees where they live together.
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A tree infested with tent caterpillars may show signs of heavy defoliation.
Synonyms
43
1.0
A soft young insect like a worm that becomes a butterfly or moth and eats leaves
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'larva that builds and lives in communal silken webs' is directly derivable from combining 'tent' (a shelter/covering, here tent-like web) with 'caterpillar' (a larva). This N+N compound transparently denotes a caterpillar associated with a tent-like structure, a predictable composition that a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer.
Etymology
Tent caterpillar comes from the way young caterpillars make a silk tent or web in the branches of trees and live together inside it. So the name simply describes the insect: a caterpillar that lives in a tent-like 'nest'.