elytra's Usage Examples:

Meinert, who endeavoured to compare them with the tegulae of Hymenoptera, but the older view was securely established by the demonstration in pupal elytra by J.

Into another category Hymenoptera enter not as models but as mimics, the models being inedible Malacodermatous beetles mostly belonging to the genus Lycus and characterized by orange coloration set off by a large black patch upon the posterior end of the elytra and a smaller black spot upon the thorax.

The identification of the elytra of beetles with the fore-wings of other insects has indeed been questioned (1880) by F.

The wings of Coleoptera (including the elytra) are described and discussed by F.

The males are very small, free-flying insects with the prothorax, mesothorax and elytra greatly reduced, the latter appearing as little, twisted strips, while the metathorax is relatively large, with its wings broad and capable of longitudinal folding.

The Coleoptera can be traced back farther in time than any other order of insects with complete transformations, if the structures that have been described from the Carboniferous rocks of Germany are really elytra.

In many beetles the hindwings are reduced to mere vestiges useless for flight, or are altogether absent, and in such cases the two elytra are often fused together at the suture; thus organs originally intended for flight have been transformed into an armour-like covering for the beetle's hind-body.

The Bruchidae, or seed-beetles, agree with the two preceding families in tarsal structure; the head is largely hidden by the pronotum, and the elytra are short enough to leave the end of the abdomen exposed (fig.

The elytra are equally reduced, and apparently for the same purpose, in an Australian Longicorn beetle (Esthesis ferrugineus), which, like so many wasp-like Hymenoptera, has the body banded red and black.

The beetles are ovoid in shape, with smooth contours, and the elytra fit over the edges of the abdomen so as to enclose a supply of air, available for use when the insect remains under water.

The elytra serve as protectors to the wings when the wings are folded upon the back of the insect, and as they are extended on either side of the body more or less horizontally when the insect is flying they contribute to flight indirectly, in virtue of their being carried forward by the body in motion.

It has been shown by means of spectroscopic observations that the green colour of the elytra, 'c.

Synonyms:

wing, wing case,

Antonyms:

stay in place,