English

A psocopteran, Psococerastis gibbosa

Noun

psocopteran ‎(plural psocopterans)

1. Any insect of the order Psocoptera.
   • 2002, Niles Eldredge, Life on Earth, page 152,

     Thrips probably evolved from primitive Psocopterans approximately 250 million years ago. […] The Liposcelidae include the common "book lice" (Liposcelis) psocopterans, which are wingless and also found in mammal nests.

   • 2006, James T. Costa, The Other Insect Societies, page 193,

     The psocopterans most readers are likely to encounter seem more social parasites than social.

   • 2009, Ian Christopher Stocks, Comparative Morphological and Functional Analysis of Wing Coupling and ..., page 13,

     Psocoptera and Phthiraptera are paraphyletic with respect to each other (Yoshizawa & Johnson 2006; Kjer et al. 2006) but the suborders Psocomorpha and Trogiomorpha, which contain most of the common species of psocopterans, do appear to be monophyletic (Yoshizawa 2002).

Synonyms

• (any species of Psocoptera): bark fly, bark louse, book louse, psocid