Coleoptera

Chamber's Twientieth Century Dictionary · 1908 · p. 22

kol-e-op′tėr-a, n.pl. an order of insects having two pairs of wings, the outer pair being hard or horny, serving as wing-cases for the true wings: the beetles.— adjs. Coleop′teral , Coleop′terous .— n. Coleop′terist . [Gr. koleos , a sheath, and pteron (pl. ptera ), a wing.]