Spanish Fly

Definition: Spanish Fly

Spanish Fly

Noun

1. Green beetle of southern Europe.

Crosswords: Spanish Fly

English words defined with "Spanish fly": Blister beetle ♦ Cantharidin, Cantharis. (references)

The Spanish fly is an emerald-green beetle Lytta vesicatoria, (from Greek lytta=rage and Latin vesica=blister) in the family Meloidae. It is still sometimes referred to as Cantharis vesicatoria, but the genus Cantharis is in an unrelated family, Cantharidae. It is 15-22 mm long and 5-8 mm wide, and lives on plants from the Caprifoliaceae\ and Oleaceae families.

Medical use

The beetle contains up to 1% cantharidin. The powder made from dried and crushed beetle has been used as an aphrodisiac, under the mistaken impression that the urinary irritation created was sexual arousal. Its medical use dates back to descriptions from Hippocrates.

A similar powder from Myalabris beetles (also in the Meloidae), called "vuka-vuka" (vuka=wake up), is known in Zimbabwe.

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	I've heard that it makes spanish fly look like sea salt. (Party Camp; writing credit: Paul L. Brown)
Movie/TV Titles	Night of the Spanish Fly (1978)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Spanish Fly (reference) Spanish Fly (vol 3) (reference) Spanish Fly is Radioactive, LBJ's Cover-Up in the Palomares, Spain H-bomb Accident in 1966 (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Stereophonic Spanish Fly (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "Spanish fly"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Chinese		蟊 (grain-eating grub), 蝥 (grain-eating grub). (various references)

Danish		spansk flue (blister beetle, blister fly, green cantharide). (various references)

Dutch		Spaanse vlieg (cantharides). (various references)

Esperanto		kantarido (cantharides). (various references)

Finnish		espanjankärpänen (blister beetle, blister fly, green cantharide). (various references)

French		mouche d'Espagne, cantharide vésicante, cantharide officinale, cantharide du frêne. (various references)

German		Spanische Fliege (cantharides). (various references)

Greek		κανθαρίδα η πράσινη (blister beetle, blister fly, green cantharide). (various references)

Italian		cantaride (blister beetle, blister fly, green cantharide, soldier beetle). (various references)

Manx		meeyl Spaainagh. (various references)

Pig Latin		anishspay yflay

Russian		шпанская мушка (blister-fly). (various references)

Spanish		mosca de España (blister beetle, blister fly, green cantharide), cantárida oficinal (blister beetle, blister fly, green cantharide), cantárida (blister beetle, cantharides). (various references)

Swedish		spansk fluga (blister beetle, blister fly, green cantharide). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	cantharis, Lytta vesicatoria. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-f-h-i-l-n-p-s-s-y"
	-3 letters: apishly, hyalins, lashins, panfish, planish, salsify, spinals, splashy.
	-4 letters: aspish, finals, flashy, hyalin, inlays, lapins, lysins, palish, phasis, phials, physis, pilafs, plains, plashy, salify, shnaps, snails, spahis, spails, spinal, splash, splays, sylphs.
	-5 letters: alifs, anils, aphis, apish, apsis, aspis, ayins, fails, final, fishy, flans, flaps, flash, flays, flips, hafis, hails, haply, hasps, hissy.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Expression	Frequency per Day
spanish fly	472
spanish fly aphrodisiac	4
spanish fly girl	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Spanish Fly

Definition: Spanish Fly

Spanish Fly

Noun

Crosswords: Spanish Fly

Specialty Definition: Spanish fly

Medical use

Modern Usage: Spanish Fly

Screenplays

Movie/TV Titles

Commercial Usage: Spanish Fly

Books

Music

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Spanish Fly

spanish fly

spanish fly aphrodisiac

spanish fly girl

Modern Translation: Spanish Fly

Chinese

Danish

Dutch

Esperanto

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Italian

Manx

Pig Latin

Russian

Spanish

Swedish

Ancestral Language Translations: Spanish Fly

Anagrams: Spanish Fly

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

INDEX