422 IN8ECTA. 



there is a union of several other metallic colours. Their body, in 

 general, is oval, somewhat wider and obtuse, or truncated before, 

 and narrowed behind from the base of the abdomen, which occupies 

 the greater part of its length. The eyes are oval, and the thorax is 

 short and wide. The scutel small or null. The extremity of the 

 elytra is more or less dentated in many. The legs are short. 



They walk very slowly, but fly well in hot and dry weather. 

 When about to be seized, they let themselves fall to the ground. At 

 the posterior extremity of the abdomen of the females is a coriaceous, 

 laminiform, conical appendage, composed of three parts, the last 

 annuli of the abdomen ; it is properly an instrument with which they 

 deposit their ova in dry wood, the habitat of their larvae. Several 

 small species are met with on leaves and flowers ; most of the others, 

 however, are found in forests, and wood-yards : they sometimes ap- 

 pear in houses, where they have been transported, in wood, in the 

 state of a larva or chrysalis. 



Sometimes the antennae are at most dentated like a saw. The 

 intermediate joints of the tarsi are in the form of a reversed heart, 

 and the penultimate, at least, is bifid. The palpi are filiform or very 

 little thicker at the end. The jaws are bilobate. 



BUPKESTIS, Lin. 



In the true Buprestis, the antennae are of equal thickness through- 

 out, and serrated from the third or fourth joint. 

 Some have no scutel. 



B. fasiculata, L. ; Oliv., Col. II, 32, IV, 38. About an inch 

 long; ovoid, convex; densely punctured and wrinkled; of a 

 golden or cupreous-green, sometimes dusky, with little tufts of 

 yellowish or reddish hairs; elytra entire. From the Cape of 

 Good Hope, where it is often found in such abundance on the 

 same shrub, that the plant seems loaded with flowers. 



B. sternicornis, L. ; Oliv., Col., Ib., VI, 52, a. Somewhat 

 larger, and of the same form ; green, slightly gilded, and very 

 brilliant ; large punctures, ornamented at bottom with whitish 

 scales on the elytra ; three teeth at their extremity ; poststernum 

 projecting in the form of a horn. The East Indies. 



B. chrysis, Fab. ; Oliv., Ib., 1I.,8, VI, 52, 6. Differing from 

 the sternicornis in the elytra, which are chesnut-brown, and 

 without whitish spots. 



B. vittata, Fab. ; Oliv,, Ib. Ill, 17- Nearly an inch arid a half 

 long ; narrower and more elongated than the preceding species ; 

 depressed ; bluish-green ; four elevated lines, and a cupreous and 

 golden band on each elytron, the end of which is bidentate. 

 East Indies. 



B. ocellata, Fab. ; Oliv., Ib. I, 3. Almost similar to the pre- 

 ceding in form and size ; a large, yellow, phosphoric spot be- 

 tween two golden ones, on each elytron, which is tridentate at 

 the extremity. 

 The others are furnished with a scutel. 



B. gigas,l*.\ Oliv., Ib. I, 1. Two inches long; thorax cu- 

 preous, mixed with brilliant green, and two large smooth spots 



