94 THE ORDER. OF COLEOPTERA. 



Family XXXIV. BUPllESTID.E. 



The name Bu])resti8 was given by the ancients to some kind of noxi- 

 ous insects .which cannot now be determined ; but it was subse<iuently 

 given by Linnteus to the insects of tlie present 

 family. They might properly be called, in Eng- 

 lish, metal lie beetles, in reference to their very 

 hard and inflexible bodies, and their metallic col- 

 oiing. They are further distinguished by their 

 sliort, slender and finely but distinctly serrate 

 antenna', and the presence of trochantins in the 

 anterior and middle legs. They are usually of an 

 oblong elli])tical form, ami somewhat depressed 

 or flattened, but some of the smaller species are 

 either elongate, slendei-, and almost rylindrical, 

 Fa^'^f^i^^S^b^rT^ or short and ovate. The scnlellum is very small 

 p?i'!''a%'a^vT;VL'ado>"'^^^^^^^^^ somctinu's Wanting. Tho. ISuprestida^ are 



Xerifie'-^''"^'''' '''^'"'tio-pj.g.,.,„j^,<.,^l^ly a tropical family, and in those tor- 

 rid regions they attain a large size, and reflect the light from their pol- 

 ished bodies with an almost dazzling brilliancy. 



The larVfC present two very distinct forms. The usual form is at 

 once distinguished from all other Coleopterous larva^ by the enormous 

 development of the first segment of the body, into which the head is 

 partly retractile. The other segments are narrow and slightly flattened. 

 This form of the larvai has caused them to be compared with tadpoles, 

 and the French authors describe them as resembling a pestle. They 

 are wholly destitute of legs. 



These larviiti usually reside under the bark of trees in a state of inci- 

 pient decay, but some of them penetrate into the solid wood. Some of 

 the smaller species inhabit the stems of small trees or shrubs, causing 

 them to enlarge so as to resemble galls. An exami)le of the former is 

 the flat-headed borer of the apple and soft maple trees; and an exami)le 

 of the latter is the raspberry cane borer, or larviie of the Agrilm ruficollis'. 

 The other form of Buprestide larva is that of the Brachyides or short- 

 bodied ljU})restid;Te. In these the first segment is not enlarged, the 

 body is slender and tai^ering, and each of the three first segments is 

 furnished with a pair of very small feet, placed wide apart. These spe- 

 cies are all very small, and such of them as are known are leaf-miners. 

 Ill an economical point of view, the Buprestidai occupy a peculiar po- 

 sition, intermediate between the genuine wood-borers (Cerambycida? 

 and Scolytida-), which bore into the solid wood of trees, and those kind 

 of wood -beetles which (like the Elateridie and many of the Heteromer- 



