Pl. tegmina. [L. tegmen (tegimen, tegumen) covering, f. teg-ĕre to cover; so F. tegmen.] A cover, covering, coating, integument. (Only in scientific use.) a. gen.
1807. Headrick, Arran, 61. The pitchstone assumes a greyish tegmen, or crust, by exposure to the air.
b. Entom. (pl.) The wing-covers, i.e., the fore wings when modified so as to serve as coverings for the hind wings; esp. those of orthopterous insects (corresponding to the elytra of beetles).
1817. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxiii. (1818), II. 350. Probably in the next order (Orthoptera), the Tegmina, or wing-covers … assist them in flying. Ibid. (1826), xlvii. IV. 371. The horizontal portion of one tegmen lies longitudinally over that of the other.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., vii. 400. The female [cockroach] has moveable tegmina.
c. Bot. The thin inner coat of a seed, immediately enveloping the nucleus; the endopleura.
[1832. Lindley, Introd. Bot., 183. The internal integument,… endopleura or De Candolle, hilofère and tegmen of Mirbel.]
1857. Henfrey, Bot., § 296. The inner integument, the tegmen or endopleura, is not generally distinguishable.
d. Anat. Tegmen tympani, a plate of bone forming the roof of the tympanum of the ear, being a part of the temporal bone.
1890. in Billings, Nat. Med. Dict.
e. Ornith. (pl.) = Tectrices: see TECTRIX.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
