adjective
- lacking wings or having no wings
Usage: biology; entomology
Examples
- The apterous insects crawled along the forest floor.
- Worker ants are typically apterous throughout their lives.
- Some apterous beetles have evolved to live in caves.
- The apterous form of the aphid cannot fly to new host plants.
- Fleas are apterous parasites that jump rather than fly.
- The apterous stage occurs in certain insect life cycles.