passalus
noun
pas·sa·lus
ˈpasələs
1
capitalized : the type genus of the family Passalidae
2
plural -es : any beetle of Passalus or a related genus
especially : a flat shiny black gregarious bess-bug (Popilius disjunctus) of the southern U.S.
called also horned passalus
Word History
Etymology
New Latin, from Greek passalos peg; akin to Greek pēssein to fix, fasten, pēgnynai to fix, fasten