[L. brūcus, brūchus, a. Gr. βροῦκος, βροῦχος ‘a wingless locust.’]
1. An insect; a caterpillar; = BRUKE.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XI. vi. (1495), 393. Brucus is the brood of long flyes that dystroye corne and grasse.
c. 1475. Bk. Found. St. Barthol. Ch., I. vi. (1883), 52. Brucus is the issue of the buttyrflie, or he haue wynges.
1609. Bible (Douay), Ps. civ. [cv.] 34. The locust came, and the bruchus. Ibid., Joel i. comm., Bruchus, an other fleeing litle beast, that devoureth not only fruite but also the leaves of trees.
2. A genus of rhyncophorus beetles, of which the larvæ are destructive to pease, etc. Hence Bruchian, a member of the genus Bruchus.
1852. T. W. Harris, Insects New Eng., 54. The habits of the Bruchians and their larvæ.
