night-biter

night-bi·ter
UK/naɪt ˈbaɪtə/US/naɪt ˈbaɪtɚ/

noun

An animal, especially an insect such as a mosquito, that bites during the night.

Meanings

nounnight-biter (plural night-biters)

plural night-biters · alternative night biter

  1. An animal, especially an insect such as a mosquito, that bites during the night.

    [S]ome species of fish are night biters and some are not. Black sea bass are good night biters.

    1977, Charlie [J. Charles] Davis, Hook Up: A Complete Guide to Southern California Ocean Sportfishing, Seattle, Wash.: Outdoor Empire Pub., →ISBN, page 110
    5 more examples

    The anopheles associated by experience with malaria are, in the main, house-haunters and night-biters, and at night their victim mainly spends his time in a house, circumstances which make it likely that the house is important in the transmission of malaria.

    1931 March 6, Clayton [Arbuthnot] Lane, Housing and Malaria: A Critical Summary of the Literature Dealing with the Subject (Series of League of Nations Publications; 3), Geneva: League of Nations Health Organisation, →OCLC, page 34

    She [the mosquito] may be a night-biter or a day-biter. She may give an alarm: a hum made by the beating of her wings. Or she may be absolutely silent.

    1954 June, Gardner Soule, “How to fight mosquitoes”, in Popular Science, volume 164, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Popular Science Publishing Company, →ISSN, page 112

    He argued that since these embryos are so much more numerous in the blood at night than in the daytime, the insect must probably be a night-biter, and with this in mind he began to examine the commonest night-biting insect he knew, the mosquito Culex fatigans.

    1965, Charles Wilcocks, “Transmission of Disease by Arthropods: Worms, Protozoa, Viruses, Bacteria”, in Medical Advance, Public Health and Social Evolution (The Commonwealth and International Library, Liberal Studies Division), Oxford: Pergamon Press, →OCLC, page 160

    There are 3 main kinds of disease-transmitting mosquitoes: Anopheles, Culex, and Aedes. […] Anopheles are night biters and breed in clean water; Anopheles mosquitoes carry malaria and some filariasis.

    2000, Mary Vanderkooi, Village Medical Manual: A Layman's Guide to Health Care in Developing Countries, 5th edition, volumes I (Principles and Procedures), Pasadena, Calif.: William Carey Library, →ISBN, page 198

    In the Philippines, the principal malaria vector is Anopheles minimus var. flavirostris, a night-biter which breeds in slow-flowing, partly shaded streams that abound in the foothill areas.

    2008, Vicente Belizario Jr., “Epidemiology of Malaria in the Philippines”, in Gisela P. Padilla Concepcion, Eduardo A. Padlan, Caesar A[ya-ay] Saloma, editors, Selected Essays on Science and Technology for Securing a Better Philippines, volume I, Diliman, Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, →ISBN, page 210
Cite this entry
APA

night-biter. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/night-biter

MLA

“night-biter.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/night-biter. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “night-biter,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/night-biter.

Source: night-biter on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.