tegmen
Sign in to savethumb|Left tegmen of male Blatta orientalis thumb|Lithoblatta lithophila, a Jurassic fossil, some 200 million years more recent than the emergence of cockroaches in the [[Carboniferous. Even the earliest cockroaches had tegmina that fossilised well.]] A tegmen (: tegmina) designates the modified leathery front wing on an insect particularly in the orders Dermaptera (earwigs), Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets and similar families), Mantodea (praying mantis), Phasmatodea (stick and leaf insects) and Blattodea (cockroaches).
~3 min read
Article
4 sectionsContents
- The nature of tegmina
- The function of tegmina
- Tegmina and sound
- References
thumb|Left tegmen of male Blatta orientalis thumb|Lithoblatta lithophila, a Jurassic fossil, some 200 million years more recent than the emergence of cockroaches in the [[Carboniferous. Even the earliest cockroaches had tegmina that fossilised well.]] A tegmen (: tegmina) designates the modified leathery front wing on an insect particularly in the orders Dermaptera (earwigs), Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets and similar families), Mantodea (praying mantis), Phasmatodea (stick and leaf insects) and Blattodea (cockroaches).
It is also a term used in botany to describe the delicate inner protective layer of a seed, and in zoology to describe a stiff membrane on the upper surface of the crown of a crinoid.