| 释义 |
vaquita, n.
Brit. |vəˈkiːtə|, |vɑˈkiːtə|, U.S. |vɑˈkidə|
[‹ American Spanish vaquita (1922 or earlier in sense 1; in this sense also more fully vaquita de la caña; in sense 2 also more fully vaquita marina), lit. ‘little cow’ > comb. form) + -ita, diminutive suffix.]
1. The Diaprepes root weevil, Diaprepes abbreviatus, a black beetle with orange-yellow stripes that is native to the Caribbean and feeds on plant roots as a larva and on leaves as an adult. Also called citrus root weevil. Now rare.
Formerly a significant pest of sugar cane in Puerto Rico, and now of citrus crops in the southern United States.
1933Science 27 Oct. (Sci. News Suppl.) 9/2 Entomologists who have reared ‘vaquita’ in captivity for research purposes found that it preferred laying its eggs between two sheets of paper. 1950Amer. Naturalist 84 192 To those who can remember the enormous abundance of white grubs and ‘vaquita’ grubs before Bufo marinus was brought to Puerto Rico, the present infestations seem quite minor.
2. A small porpoise, Phocoena sinus, discovered in 1958 at the northern end of the Gulf of California.
With a length of 4 to 5 feet (approx. 1.5 metres), the vaquita is the smallest living species of cetacean.
1961Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool. 63 iv. 351 The animals were called ‘vaquita’ or little cow. 1982R. Ellis Dolphins & Porpoises 196/2 Where the harbor porpoise is..lead-black or gray,..the vaquita..is brownish. 2005El Universal (Mexico) (Nexis) 18 Aug. A proposal to increase the protected area for the vaquita porpoise from 900,000 to 1.2 million hectares..also drew criticism from fishermen. |