manticora

plural manticoras

1. alternativeAlternative form of manticore.

   There was surely another creature standing guard inside, in lieu of the manticora Bink had known: the one at the Anniversary party.

   2002, Piers Anthony, Source of Magic, →ISBN, page 70

   4 more examples

   Scar. In plainer Enargy, what are they? speake; But. Mantichoras, monstrous beastes, enemies to mankinde, that ha double rowes of teeth in their mouthes.

   1607, George Wilkins, The Miseries of Enforced Marriage

   An inscribed example of the manticora occurs on the remarkable sculptured twelfth century bestiary at Souvigny in France, illustrated by De Caumont in his Abécdaire d' Archéologie, p. 273. Here the manticora wears a Phrygian cap, like the Magi and Three Children in the Fiery Furnace, in all cases to show their Eastern origin.

   1887, John Romilly Allen, Early Christian Symbolism in Great Britain and Ireland, pages 391–392

   On the south transept there are some manticoras - creatures with the bodies of lions and the heads of men. Some of these are even more grotesque than the manticoras of the bestiaries.

   1974, Katharine Mary Briggs, The folklore of the Cotswolds, page 159

   The implication that the gargoyles are the same beast means that they are not intended to be manticoras, since the triple rows of teeth and scorpion's tail are not present in the androcephalous lion.

   1998, Conleth Manning, Patrick Healy, Dublin and beyond the Pale: studies in honour of Patrick Healy

plural manticoras

1. Any of various tiger beetles of genus Manticora.

   There still are many questions concerning manticoras' behaviour and biology, nevertheless the facts already observed permit to form a basic picture.

   2002, Jaroslav Mareš, Manticora: a monograph of the genus

   2 more examples

   “A tuberous manticora!” he exclaimed. The insect began to move again, and as it crawled down to the entrance of the nostrils the tickling sensation became too much for endurance, and Benedict sneezed.

   1878, Jules Verne, Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen

   These rare and eclectic curiosities were just part of an expansive collection of exotic rarities that ranged from a dried Manticora beetle to a comet fragment bought at a rest stop in the Mojave Desert, all from his father's side of the family, who for generations had produced sailors, explorers, and scientists, that traveled to remote corners of the world, seemingly driven by an unquenched thirst for adventure.

   2011, Micah Linton, The Amazing Adventures of Leopold, A Steam Punk Novella, Part One: Quantum Maelstrom