(Encyclopedia) mealybug, common name for certain unarmored scale insects that exude a granular white secretion, giving them a mealy appearance. Many are common greenhouse and crop pests. Adult…
(Encyclopedia) Brown, Helen Gurley, 1922–2012, American writer and editor, b. Green Forest, Ark. A child of poverty, she became a successful advertising copywriter and wrote the best-selling Sex and…
(Encyclopedia) Sillanpää, Frans EemilSillanpää, Frans Eemilfräns āˈmĭl sĭlˈlänpăˌ [key], 1888–1964, Finnish novelist. As a young man Sillanpää studied natural science at Helsinki and came under the…
(Encyclopedia) pixie, in English folklore, spirit or fairy. The pixie is commonly represented as a mischievous imp who delights in flustering young maidens and leading travelers astray.
(Encyclopedia) killifish, any of more than a thousand species of small fish of the several families of the order Cyprinodontiformes (toothed minnows or toothed carps), a group that includes also the…
(Encyclopedia) San Jose scale, common name for a scale insect, Aspidiotus perniciosus, introduced from China into San Jose, Calif., c.1870 on nursery stock. The insect has since spread throughout…
