THE SEREICORN BEETLES. 



45 



Fig. 20. 



brown ; the surface is smooth and polished ; the upper 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 antennae 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 BUPRESTID^E, 

 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. Linnaeus, 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 grass. 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 



