Dictionary

wheal-worm en · NOUN

Etymology

Compound of wheal + worm, after the pustule or wheal resulting from a bite.

Meanings

1. (archaic) Any of various insects or arachnids the bites of which produce raised sores.
   • It may be ſome will think it impoſſible for theſe Wheal-worms to breed between the eyes; but we ſee it is ſo, and we finde it was done ſo formerly 1658, Edward Topsell, The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents, London: E. Cotes for G. Sawbridge, XXIV Of little Lice called Syrones, Acari, and Tineæ, or Hand-worms, or Mites in living Creatures, page 1095:
2. (archaic) A harvest mite, Trombicula sp.
   • wheal-worm, n 1. The itch-mite acarus scabiei 2. The acarine Leptus autumnalis, or some similar harvest-bug: so named from the wheals or pimples left by its bite. See cut under harvest-mite. 1895, William Dwight Whitney with Benjamin Eli Smith, The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, volume 8, New York: The Century Co., →OCLC, page 6888:
3. (obsolete) A mite of species Acarus autumnalis, synonym of Neotrombicula autumnalis
   • ACARUS AUTUMNALIS. Harvest-bug. Mower's Mite. Wheal-worm. Rouget. The acarus autumnalis is scarcely larger than the acarus scabiei 1865, Sir Erasmus Wilson, “Malis, or cutaneous vermination”, in On Diseases of the Skin, Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, page 277:

Forms

Synonyms

harvest mite (harvest mite) · scarlet mite (Acarus autumnalis) · harvest bug (Acarus autumnalis) · chigger (harvest mite) · red bug (harvest mite)