Pl. elytra; also 8 elitra. [a. Gr. ἔλυτρον a sheath.] A sheath or covering.
† 1. (See quot.) Obs.–0
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Elytron … Hippocrates has appropriated the word to signify the membranes, which involve the spinal marrow.
1882. in Syd. Soc. Lex.
2. The outer hard wing-case of a coleopterous insect, pl. elytra. Also Comb., as elytra-like adj.
1774. Goldsmith, Nat. Hist. (1862), II. IV. vi. 548. The elytron, or case for the wings [of the beetle].
1777. Henly, in Phil. Trans., LXVII. 123. Elitra of the stag-beetle.
1802. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), III. 151. The larvæ of the Earwigs … have neither wings nor elytra.
1853. Dana, Crust., II. 1370. The two elytra-like prolongations of the shell.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, I. x. 343. The females of some water-beetles … have their elytra deeply grooved.
3. ‘A term applied to the shield-like plates or notopodial appendages on the back of some polychætous annelids’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd., 274. In Aphrodite aculeata the tale of the real uses of the elytra or scales is plainly told.
1878. Bell, trans. Gegenbaur’s Comp. Anat., 134. The elytra are special appendages of the parapodia.
4. ‘A term for the vagina’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
Hence in various surgical terms, as † Elytrocele, vaginal hernia. Elytroplasty, the operation of closing a vesico-vaginal fistulous opening by borrowing a flap from the labia or nates: hence Elytroplastic a. Elytrorrhaphy, the operation of closing the orifice of the vagina by suture in order to support the uterus when prolapsed; the suturing of a ruptured vagina.
1872. T. G. Thomas, Dis. Women, 195. Elytroplasty is still employed sometimes where great destruction of tissue has taken place at the base of the bladder. Ibid., 169. The operation of elytrorrhaphy.
