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An elytron (plural: elytra) is a modified, hardened forewing of certain insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
 orders, notably beetle
Beetle

Beetles are the group of insects with the largest number of known species. They are placed in the order Coleoptera , which contains more described species than in any other order in the animal, constituting about 25% of all known life-forms....
s (Coleoptera) and true bugs (Hemiptera
Hemiptera

Hemiptera is an order of insects, comprising around 80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others. They range in size from 1 mm to around 15 cm, and share a common arrangement of sucking mouthparts ....
). An elytron is sometimes also referred to as a shard
Shard

Shard may refer to:* Sherd, a fragment of pottery, glass or stone* Elytron, a forewing found on some insect species* Shard London Bridge, a planned skyscraper...
.

The elytra primarily serve as protection for the hindwings underneath, which are used for flying.






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Maybug
An elytron (plural: elytra) is a modified, hardened forewing of certain insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
 orders, notably beetle
Beetle

Beetles are the group of insects with the largest number of known species. They are placed in the order Coleoptera , which contains more described species than in any other order in the animal, constituting about 25% of all known life-forms....
s (Coleoptera) and true bugs (Hemiptera
Hemiptera

Hemiptera is an order of insects, comprising around 80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others. They range in size from 1 mm to around 15 cm, and share a common arrangement of sucking mouthparts ....
). An elytron is sometimes also referred to as a shard
Shard

Shard may refer to:* Sherd, a fragment of pottery, glass or stone* Elytron, a forewing found on some insect species* Shard London Bridge, a planned skyscraper...
.

The elytra primarily serve as protection for the hindwings underneath, which are used for flying. In some groups, the elytra are fused together, rendering the insect flightless. Some of the ground beetle
Ground beetle

Ground beetles or carabids are collective terms for the beetle family Carabidae. This is a large family, with more than 40,000 species worldwide, approximately 2,000 of which are found in North America and 2,700 in Europe....
s (family Carabidae) are a good example of this.

The term is also used to describe the hard scales of some polychaete
Polychaete

The Polychaeta or polychaetes are a class of annelid worms, generally marine. Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made of chitin....
 worms, notably the Polynoidae
Polynoidae

A family of scaled Polychaete worms known as the "scale worms". Short and flat, specimens reach as much as 20 cm in length and 10 cm width. An almost-constant number of small segments is the norm....
. These outgrowths of the body wall are distinguished from chaeta, which grow from follicles and thus possess roots.