a. [f. mod.L. tetrapter-us (a. Gr. τετράπτερος four-winged, f. τετρα- four- + πτερ-όν wing) + -OUS. Cf. F. tétraptère.] Having four wings; spec. in Entom. applied to four-winged flies; in Bot. having four wing-like appendages, as certain fruits. So Tetrapter (see quot. 1846); Tetrapteran a., tetrapterous; sb. a four-winged insect.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. xxix. 66. A Tetrapterous insect, the genus of which is uncertain, is said, when it is taken, to discharge its eggs like shot from a gun. Ibid., IV. xlvii. 376. A substance intermediate between that of the elytra of Coleoptera and that of the wings of the Tetrapterous Orders.
1842. Brande, Dict. Sc., etc., Tetrapterans, Tetraptera,… applied by some entomologists to the insects which have four wings, and which thus constitute an extensive primary division of the class.
1846. Smart, Suppl., Tetrapters, insects with four wings; fossil fishes having four fins.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Tetrapterus … Bot., having four wings, as the fruit of Tetragonia tetraptera.
1866. Treas. Bot., Tetrapterous, four-winged.
