canker fly

plural canker flies

1. archaicA fly that feeds on fruit.

   That gnawing canker-fly, the printed book, sucks the life-blood out of the great stone pile.

   1910 [1831], anonymous translator, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, translation of original by Victor Hugo, page 176

   3 more examples

   Siebenkäs, in a voice of wrath, now turned bis seat of judgment into a penitent's stool for the Venner, abusing him as a canker-fly of female buds, a dove-hawk, a house-breaker of the treasures of marriage.

   1845 [1796], Edward Henry Noel, transl., Flower, Fruit and Thorn Pieces: Or, The Married Life, Death, and Wedding of the Advocate of the Poor, Firmian Stanislaus Sibenkas̈, translation of original by Jean Paul, page 240

   And I requite to you the years which the locust ate, the canker-fly, and the fledged locust, and the young locust, my great host which I sent among you.

   1866, Rowland Williams, The Hebrew Prophets Translated Afresh from the Original, page 21

   In many districts, moreover, the appearance of the "canker" fly had a very prejudicial effect upon the quality of the oil.

   1890, Great Britain. Foreign Office, Diplomatic and Consular Reports: Annual series, page 21