| 释义 |
lerp|lɜːrp|
Also laap, leurp.
[Native Australian.]
A sweet secretion, or the scales formed from it, produced by larvæ of jumping plant-lice of the family Psyllidæ on the leaves of eucalypts and other plants. Also attrib.
1848W. Westgarth Australia Felix vi. 73 The natives of the Wimmera prepare a luscious drink from the laap. 1878R. B. Smyth Aborig. Victoria I. 211 Lerp. 1907W. W. Froggatt Austral. Insects 363 Their popular name of ‘Lerp Insects’ [comes] from the habit of the larvae of many species of forming ‘lerp scales’, shell-like protective coverings formed from exudations from the insects. 1945K. C. McKeown Austral. Insects 104 The Psyllidae, or Lerp-insects, form an important group in Australia. Ibid. 106 In its immature stages the insect lives as a squat little larva or nymph beneath the lerp-scale. 1962Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales LXXXVII. 283 The encyrtid parasites described in this paper form one of the lesser groups of parasites of lerp-forming psyllids on eucalypts. 1965Austral. Encycl. V. 290/2 Lerp-insects, a large and common group of jumping plant-lice..which suggest miniature cicadas... Some of them give themselves, through sugary exudations, protective and often picturesque coverings known as lerp scales. Ibid. IV. 479/2 The lerp scales secreted by the larvae are often of beautiful design and characteristic of the species. 1970T. E. Woodward et al. in Insects of Australia (Commonwealth Sci. & Industr. Res. Organization) xxvi. 418/2 Lerp formation has probably evolved because of the need to protect the nymphs from desiccation. Ibid. 419/1 Most species of Glycaspis and Lasiopsylla are lerp-builders, but some form large bubble-shaped galls with an orifice at the base plugged with the same waxy or sugary material as is used by other species to build lerps. |