A Kl^: VISION OF THE WEST INDIAN COLEOPTERA OF 

 THE FAMILY BUPRESTIDAE 



By Warken S. Fisher 



Of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture 



INTRODUCTION 



The present paper is the results of a study of the material of this 

 family from the West Indies found in the collection of the United 

 I States National Museum, together with such material as could be 

 ' borrowed from other sources. Specimens have been received at 

 various times for identification, but since the material in the col- 

 I lection was mostly imidentified, the descriptions widely scattered, 

 and the species of the family from that region having never been 

 treated in a synoptical way, it seemed advisable to bring together as 

 much material from other sources as possible, so that the subject 

 could be treated in a more exhaustive manner, which would facili- 

 tate the identification of material by future students. 



Three-fourths of the number of species of Buprestidae hitherto 

 known to inhabit the West Indies have been studied by the writer 

 in the preparation of this paper, the 21 species not seen by him, so 

 for as known, are represented mostly by unique types which were 

 not available for study. The adults of this family, although abund- 

 ant in nature, are so agile that their capture by collectors are not 

 frequent and the fauna here treated appears to have been greatly 

 neglected, but by assembling material from a number of Museums 

 and private collections, a fairly good representation has been 

 brought together, so that in addition to the 80 species previously 

 known, one new genus, and 26 more species are described as new. 



The Buprestidae of the West Indies have been treated by a number 

 of authors in a general way. Jacquelin Duval was the first of these 

 authors to consider this family from that region ^ (published in 

 French and reissued the same year in a Spanish edition), and records 

 five genera and 12 species, 4 of which are described as new. Auguste 



» Ramon de la Sagra's Histoire physique, politique et naturelle de I'ile de Cuba, 1857, 

 pp. 56-65. 



No. 2522. — Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 65, Art. 9. 



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