THE SEREICORN BEETLES. 



45 



Fig. 20. 



brown ; tlie surface is smooth and polished ; the iipper jaws 

 of the male are long, curved like 

 a sickle, and furnished internally 

 beyond the middle with a little 

 tooth ; those of the female are 

 much shorter, and also toothed ; 

 the head of the male is broad and 

 smooth, that of the other sex nar- 

 rower and rough with punctures. 

 The body of this beetle measures 

 from one inch to one inch and 

 a quarter, exclusive of the jaws. 

 The time of its appearance is in 

 July and the beginning of Au- 

 gust. The grubs live in the trunks and roots of various 

 kinds of trees, but particularly in those of old apple-trees, 

 willows, and oaks. All the foregoing beetles have, by some 

 naturalists, been gathered into a single tribe, called lamelli- 

 corn or leaf-horned beetles, on account of the leaf-like joints 

 wherewith the end of their antennse is provided. 



The beetles next to be described have been brought to- 

 gether into one great tribe, named serricorn or saw-horned 

 beetles, because the tips of the joints of their antennae usually 

 project more or less on the inside, somewhat like the teeth 

 of a saw. The beetles belonging to the family Buprestidje, 

 or the Buprestians, have antennae of this kind. The Bupres- 

 tis of the ancients, as its name signifies in Greek, was a poi- 

 sonous insect, which, being swallowed with grass by grazing 

 cattle, produced a violent inflammation, and such a degree 

 of swelling as to cause the cattle to burst. Linngeus, how- 

 ever, unfortunately applied this name to the insects of the 

 above-mentioned family, none of which are poisonous to ani- 

 mals, and are rarely, if ever, found upon the gi-ass. It is in 

 allusion to the original signification of the word Buprestis^ 

 that popular English writers on natural history sometimes 

 give the name of burncow to the harmless Buprestians ; while 



