thunderfly

plural thunderflies

1. Any insect of the genus Thrips.

   Meanwhile at the Conference Centre three fire-engines have screamed up. Not, for once, a student smoking in a bedroom: this time a cloud of thunderflies has chosen to swarm on the pearly-pink just-warm globe of a smoke-detector.

   1987, Fleur Adcock, “Wildlife”, in Gillian Clarke, editor, The Poetry Book Society Anthology 1987/88, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   The afternoon had turned overcast and sultry, and Sawrey drowsed in the growing July heat. Clouds of tiny midges—thunderflies, people called them—very small and black, and thought to be a sign of a coming storm, gathered in the air all over the village. […] And whilst thunderflies didn’t bite or sting, they got in one’s eyes and one’s mouth and were certainly aggravating.

   2005, Susan Wittig Albert, “Sarah Barwick Makes a Mess”, in The Tale of Holly How (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter; 2), New York, N.Y.: Berkley Prime Crime, →ISBN, page 32

   ‘[…] I remember how we had to make for the boat quickly because of the thunderflies.’ / ‘Thunderflies?’ / ‘Biting midges that could make your life a hell. And the mosquitoes too. We called them buzzers because of the sound they made.[…]’

   2015, Michael Nicholson, chapter 14, in Dark Rosaleen: A Famine Novel, Dublin: The History Press Ireland, published 2016, →ISBN, page 205

   Synonyms: thunderbug