I can never get it straight what Chrysalis wings are like since I don't know bugs that well so I'm you all here what kind of bug wings does chrysalis's resemble the most as

They're not very much like real insect wings, which don't work very well when they're full of holes and half of it has been chewed away. I suppose they're kind of like a cicada's wing but without the internal bracing. Realistically, they're kind of crap. Much like Chrissy's brain, it's amazing that they work at all.

7700242
So you’re saying that according to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a changeling should be able to fly?

7700245
Yeah, basically. Pretty much every flying race in MLP would have serious aerodynamic problems - at the very least, they'd need hollow bones and much bigger wings - but changelings especially.

7700229
An entomologist here.

Truth be told, the only thing that can be said about Chrysalis's wings is that she's old, since you'll see such worn wings on insects that have been flying around for a while, may have been pecked by birds, and such. The shape itself isn't reminiscent of any insect taxon, and neither is the lack of venation.

Wing venation makes for an important morphological characteristic that can be used for telling apart different taxa. Each vein, fold, and cell has its name:


The pterostigma, present in some insects, is particularly interesting, since it helps balance out the wing and prevent if from vibrating too much under certain conditions. However, I'm getting off-topic. The important thing is that you'll rarely see all these veins present, as many of them tend to be reduced. For example, attached below is a photo of Anteon, a genus of dryinid parasitoids. You can see that its venation has been reduced rather extremely, but it's still present. The issue with the canon depiction of Chrysalis is that her wings are completely veinless, making any comparison with other insects impossible.

We could argue that Chrysalis and pre-change changelings have only one pair of membranous wings, a condition that can be encountered in members of Diptera (flies, midges, mosquitoes, etc.) and also in male strepsipterans (A weird group of parasites closely related to beetles. The adult female resembles a sac that pokes from the abdomen of other insects.) and also in males of some scale insects. However, post-change changelings seem to have two pairs of wings--one turned into elytra, the other membranous, the design of both of which is reminiscent of beetles.

So, to summarise, it's a mess.

7700229
I think they are like shredded bee wings, but instead of funky bee aerodynamics to fly they use the cheat called magic.

7700229
basically chrysalis's wings are the same as the reformed changelings only with the top half ripped off.

7700314 Minor correction: we don't see the veins in changeling wings for the same reason we don't see a fur texture on the ponies- because of the limitations of animation. Just as we assume ponies have fur and not just bare pastel-colored skin, we can assume that changeling wings have veins of some sort.

Also- and I hadn't noticed this feature on Chrysalis before I went image-browsing just now- that green plate on her back could be elytra. And a quick image search for beetles popped up first thing several beetle species whose wings are very similar in shape to Chryssy's, particularly as we see her in "Ending of the End." (The main difference is, beetle elytra have to open to allow the flight wings to work, whereas the changeling shell is either rigid or just not animated.)

So I'd say, if you need an actual insect species for reference, to go with beetles, particularly scarabs or rhinoceros beetles. Just remember that changelings are magical creatures with a mix of mammal and insect traits, and thus should not be expected to have any consistency with either, let alone any clear evolutionary tree.

7702320

Minor correction: we don't see the veins in changeling wings for the same reason we don't see a fur texture on the ponies- because of the limitations of animation. Just as we assume ponies have fur and not just bare pastel-colored skin, we can assume that changeling wings have veins of some sort.

We see it on reformed changelings though. (I know, I know, we can argue that the animation evolved a bit since the first seasons and Chrysalis's model wasn't updated...)

The main difference is, beetle elytra have to open to allow the flight wings to work

Well, they don't have to. Not in all beetles at least. Since open elytra make flight rather cumbersome, some beetles, such as rose chafers (pictured below) fly with closed elytra. They just slip out their second pair of wings from below the elytra on the side and fly. Though truth be told, while the plate on Chryssi's back may have been modelled after elytra (I honestly think it was, either that or tegmina), both her normal design as well as the "boosted one" (not sure if there's a special term for it, didn't see "Ending of the End") have her wings growing from the plate, which would be pure nonsense if the plate was supposed to funcion as elytra. Wings growing out of modified wings... Also, the reformed changelings do possess both elytra as well as that back plate.