A surgical incision or cutting into the elytra (hardened wing covers) of beetles, typically for medical examination or therapeutic purposes.
From Greek 'elytron' + 'tomy' from 'tomos' (cut or slice), a medical suffix used for any surgical cutting procedure, seen in hundreds of medical terms.
'-Tomy' is surgery's favorite suffix—from appendectomy to tracheotomy, doctors just add 'tomy' to whatever body part they need to cut into, making incredibly specific surgical terms.
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