lovebug

English

Etymology

From love +‎ bug. From their mating behavior, remaining paired up for several days during copulation.

Noun

lovebug (plural lovebugs)

  1. An insect, the honeymoon fly (Plecia nearctica, family Biblionidae), native to Central America and the southeastern United States.
    Synonyms: double-headed bug, kissybug
  2. An insect native to subtropical regions of south-eastern China, Taiwan, and Japan (Plecia longiforceps).
    • 2025 June 30, Raphael Rashid, “Seoul wrestles with how to handle invasion of ‘lovebugs’”, in The Guardian‎[1], →ISSN:
      The bugs, officially called Plecia longiforceps, earned their nickname from their distinctive mating behaviour, flying attached as couples during copulation. […] Originally from subtropical regions of south-eastern China, Taiwan and Japan’s Ryukyu islands, the lovebugs were first scientifically identified in South Korea during a major 2022 outbreak.
  3. (informal) A person who is in love; a sweetheart.
    • 2009, Dee Kassabian, My Four Fathers and Other Short Stories, page 45:
      His parents flipped their lids when the two lovebugs got hitched. Jonnie couldn't stand the fact that her beautiful young son, gone so long over seas, had now tangled up with an older woman, and even worse, an older divorced woman […]

Further reading

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.