June, 1918.] NiCOLAY & WeISS : BuPRESTIS IN NORTH AMERICA. 75 



small, each half bulging, convex ; a V-shaped median notch ; outer pleural 

 appendage flattened, elongate, tapering gradually to the apex, the outer face 

 with numerous hairs of moderate length. Ninth sternite deeply notched. 



Habitat: Kamchatka. 



Holotype, J*, Kamchatka (L. Stejneger). 



A REVIEW OF THE GENUS BUPRESTIS IN NORTH 

 AMERICA. 



By Alan S. Nicolay and Harry B. Weiss.^ 



New Brunswick, N. J. 



The genus Biiprcstis, which contains some of the most beautiful 

 and rarest beetles of our fauna, was very much neglected by the 

 early coleopterists. Since Le Conte's revision of the family in 1859, 

 there was no serious attempt made at classification until 1909, when 

 Colonel Thomas L. Casey made an exhaustive study of the genus. 

 The result of this was a multitude of new species, the validity of most 

 of which may be justly questioned by students who demand at least 

 one good, constant character. Common and well known species were 

 split in such a way as to cause one to wonder whether a species was 

 erected on an evident character or on the geographical limits of a 

 state. No one will deny that there is considerable variation in all 

 of these large, brightly colored forms and it has been demonstrated 

 that the amount of food available to the larva influences the develop- 

 ment and size of the adult. Mv. W. J. Chamberlin, who has carried 

 on extensive experiments in the breeding of various buprestids, has 

 secured from one female of Buprcstis mirulenta, a series of forms 

 ranging from entirely green to a uniform bronze. Owing to floods, 

 commerce, etc., infested w^ood is constantly being distributed over the 

 country. These taken together with the fact that the adults are 

 strong fliers make it absurd to limit each species to a certain re- 

 stricted area. 



Colonel Casey's work has been of considerable value to students 



of the Buprestidje, as it was the first careful treatise of the group 



and on account of the many new facts and painstaking descriptions of 



the species. On the other hand, we feel that there is no good founda- 



1 The arrangement of the authors' names is alphabetical. 



