'Manna insect' definitions:

Definition of 'Manna insect'

From: GCIDE
  • Manna \Man"na\ (m[a^]n"n[.a]), n. [L., fr. Gr. ma`nna, Heb. m[=a]n; cf. Ar. mann, properly, gift (of heaven).]
  • 1. (Script.) The food supplied to the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness of Arabia; hence, divinely supplied food. --Ex. xvi. 15. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. (Bot.) A name given to lichens of the genus Lecanora, sometimes blown into heaps in the deserts of Arabia and Africa, and gathered and used as food; called also {manna lichen}. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. (Bot. & Med.) A sweetish exudation in the form of pale yellow friable flakes, coming from several trees and shrubs and used in medicine as a gentle laxative, as the secretion of Fraxinus Ornus, and {Fraxinus rotundifolia}, the manna ashes of Southern Europe. [1913 Webster]
  • Note: Persian manna is the secretion of the camel's thorn (see Camel's thorn, under Camel); Tamarisk manna, that of the Tamarisk mannifera, a shrub of Western Asia; Australian, manna, that of certain species of eucalyptus; Brian[,c]on manna, that of the European larch. [1913 Webster]
  • Manna insect (Zool), a scale insect ({Gossyparia mannipara}), which causes the exudation of manna from the Tamarix tree in Arabia. [1913 Webster]