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] In vertebrate anatomy it denotes a plate of thin bone forming the roof of the middle ear.

[2] The term tegmen refers to a miscellaneous and arbitrary group of organs in various orders of insects; they certainly are homologous in the sense that they all are derived from insect forewings, but in other senses they are analogous; for example, the evolutionary development of the short elytra of the Dermaptera shared none of the history of the development of tegmina in the Orthoptera, say.

Also, in some other insects fore- and hindwings differ both in texture and their role in flight, but are not universally regarded as tegmina.

Sometimes, as in some mantids, the tegmina crossed over the back are not striking, but when suddenly raised, act as a threatening display resembling a pair of eyes.