geodephagous

English

Etymology

Ancient Greek [Term?]

Adjective

geodephagous (not comparable)

1. (zoology, archaic) Living in the earth; applied to the ground beetles.
   • 1897 January, The Zoologist, volume 1, number 667, Notes on the Chacma Baboon:

     When I first searched for insects in the Transvaal, and in a valley beneath high cliffs, I was intensely surprised to find the stones turned over before my arrival. Being positively certain that no other geodephagous coleopterist was in the neighbourhood, I was somewhat inclined, like the Roman missionaries, who, on their arrival in Thibet, found Catholic ritual among the Buddhists, to ascribe the circumstance to occult influence; but this was before I became acquainted with the insect-searching attributes of my friends the Baboons

References

• “geodephagous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.