(Bot.) An elastic spiral filament for dispersing the spores, as in some liverworts.
2.
(Zoöl.) Any beetle of the family Elateridae, having the habit, when laid on the back, of giving a sudden upward spring, by a quick movement of the articulation between the abdomen and thorax; called also click beetle, spring beetle, and snapping beetle.
3.
(Zoöl.) The caudal spring used by Podura and related insects for leaping. See Collembola.
Elater n. (Chem.) The active principle of elaterium, being found in the juice of the wild or squirting cucumber (Ecballium agreste, formerly Motordica Elaterium) and other related species. It is extracted as a bitter, white, crystalline substance, which is a violent purgative.
... force of the Air so expanded, which is found by substracting the first row of numbers out of the third; for having found, that the outward Air would then keep up the Quicksilver to thirty inches, look whatever of that height is wanting must be attributed to the Elater of the Air depressing. And therefore having the Expansion in the second row, and the height of the subjacent Cylinder of Mercury in the first, and the greatest height of the Cylinder of Mercury, which of it self counterballances the whole pressure of the Atmosphere; ... — Micrographia • Robert Hooke
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