One of the pair of hardened, shell-like front wings of beetles and true bugs that cover and protect the delicate membranous flying wings underneath.
From Greek 'elytron' meaning sheath or cover, adopted directly into Latin as 'elytrum' when Romans studied insects and borrowed the Greek anatomical term.
Beetles are so successful that their specialized wing system got named in ancient Greek and is still used today—the elytra make beetles the most diverse animal group on Earth with over 400,000 species!
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