BHITiyil AND lOltEIGN BEETLES. 21 



delicate buff; the central ridges of the elytra being also of a 

 buff tone, with a metallic gloss of gold. 



Though exceedingly numerous, our native species of the 

 extensive order Curculionidw are all small and insignificant, 

 while the exotic genera of this tribe contain many of the 

 most splendid insects yet known. For instance, Oliorlupidins 

 Ugjistri (Fig. 1), the comnu>n CurcuUo of the Privet, is of a 

 dull olive brovva colour, with the tuberculations of the elytra 

 rather paler, and has no pretensions to beauty except ])erliaps 

 its general elegance of form, while his foreign relatives are 

 not only more than four times the size of our native kinds, 

 but their splendour of colour often equals, if it does not 

 surpass, that of the ■whole insect world. The Enpliolus 

 Schdnherrii (Fig. 7) forms perhaps the most remarkable con- 

 trast among exotic species to our native Curcnllos^, both in 

 size and beauty. This magnificent insect was discovered in 

 the island of Celebes, by the officers of " La Coquille," the 

 French ship of discovery that circumnavigated the world in 

 1833. The first specimen of this then unknown relative of 

 the CurcitUos was taken at a little seaport of Celebes, called 

 Dory, one of the hottest parts of that intertropical region, and 

 ^\•hich, in the general account of the voyage, is described as 

 swarming with resplendent insects of various kinds ; and it 

 was eventually placed in the collection of M. Chevrolat. 

 31. Guerin, clescril)ing it for the zoological section of the 

 vovage of "La Coquille," made it the type of a new genus, 

 which he called Eupholus, from the Greek words ev, fair, and 

 (j,(>\ir, a scale, in allusion to the ])owdery bloom, similar to 

 tlie minute scales of the wings of butterfiies, with which its 

 elvtra are covered ; Avhich term was adopted by Boisduval 

 when he described other allied species discovered in the 

 voyage of the "Astrolabe." The representation in the plate 

 can oive but a faint idea of this subdued metallic kind of 

 lustrous bloom, but the general distribution of colour is well 

 represented. M. Guerin describes the ground colour as being 

 of a lovely glaucous green, slightly metallic, the corslet 

 being brilliant azure, passing off impercejitibly to a delicate 

 green at the edges ; the wing-cases having transverse stripes 



