wing case

noun Entomology.

elytron.

Origin of wing case

First recorded in 1655–65

Also called wing cover.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for wing-case

Historical Examples of wing-case

On the right side of the body, in fig. 3, the wing has been folded up, and is covered by the wing-case.
Chatterbox, 1905.
Various
Shard, shrd, n. a fragment, as of an earthen vessel: the wing-case of a beetle.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements)
Various
Certainly this resembles a rough sketch of the future wing-case; but how different from the mature structure!
Social Life in the Insect World
J. H. Fabre
The instrument by which it produces its music is contrived out of the ordinary nervures of the wing-case.
The Western World
W.H.G. Kingston
Here was the hind-leg of one of the smaller beetles, there the wing-case of a flying creature.
The Forgotten Planet
Murray Leinster

British Dictionary definitions for wing-case

wing-case

noun

the nontechnical name for elytron

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012