94 THE ORDER OF COLEOPTERA. 



Family XXXIV. JiUPRESTID.E. 



The name Buprestis was j>iven by the ancients to some kind of noxi- 

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

 jFig 42.] given by Linna'us to the insects of the present 



family. They might properly be called, in Eng- 

 lish, meiallic beetles, in reference to their very 

 hard and intlexible bodies, and their metallic col- 

 oring. They are further distinguislied by their 

 short, slender and finely but distinctly serrate 

 antenna', and the ])reNence of trochantins in the 

 anterior and middle legs. They are usually of an 

 oblong elli})tical form, and somewhat dei)ressed 

 or flattened, but some of the smaller species are 

 either elongate, slender, and almost cylindrical, 

 rabi -Ft°f-h™nXT^^^ ''^ i^^Jort and ovate. The scutellum is very small 

 pSV^Sv^aVV'Uart o7 k^^^^ sometimes wanting. The Hui)restidfe are 



aSrioe' '''^"^''''^'^''*'*'*^Pi"*^-^''""^''^'y a tropical family, and in those tor- 

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

 ished bodies with an almost dazzling brilliancy. 



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

 once distinguished from all other Coleopterous larva; by the enormous 

 de\ elo])ment of the iirst segment of the body, into which the head is 

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

 This form of the larvse has caused them to be comx)ared with tadpoles, 

 and the Prencli authors describe them as resembling a jiestle. They 

 are wholly destitute of legs. 



'JMiese larv;x) usually reside under the bark of trees in a state of inci- 

 pient <!ecay, 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 exam})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 larvne of thQAgrilus ruJicolUs. 

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

 bodied Buprestidfe. In these the first segment is not enlarged, the 

 body is slender and tapering, 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. 

 In an economical point of view, the Buprestida; occupy a peculiar i)o- 

 sitiou, intermediate between the genuine wood-borers (Cerambj^cidje 

 and ScolytidjTe), which bore into the solid wood of trees, and tbose kind 

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



