COtEOPfERA, 5 1 5 



fays. In Europe, and especially in the North, they are very rare, 

 and of very small size. They must be looked for on birch-trees, 

 whose white colour seems to attract them. In the hottest parts of 

 the world they are very abundant, of large dimensions, and adorned 

 with sparkling colours. They do not jump, and are not endowed 

 with the phosphorescent property. Their larvae have no legs, are 

 elongate, whitish, of a fleshy consistency, with the first ring of their 

 bodies very much broadened. They live in the trunks of trees, 

 between the bark and the wood, hollowing out for themselves 

 irregular galleries, and remaining sometimes in this state for ten 

 years before metamorphosing. Laporte de Castelnau and Gory 

 have described and made drawings of about 1,300 species of 

 Buprestidce. Fig. 555 represents the Buprestis imperialis. The 

 Buprestis albosparsa^ the genera Julodis, the Chrysochroas, and the 

 Trachys belong also to the great family of BnprestidcB. The C/eridcB 

 are connected with the preceding. They have the thorax narrower 

 than the elytra, and rather long ; their integuments are less solid than 

 those of the Elateridce and the Buprestidce. The latter are phyto- 

 phagous, the former carnivorous. The principal type of this family 

 is the Clerus formicarius^ russet, with the head and legs black, whose 

 larva lives at the expense of the larvae of the weevil. Another genus, 

 the Necrobia, which lives on dried animal matter, has become cele- 

 brated, as it was the cause of the salvation of the greatest ento- 

 mologist of France. The name of Necrobia (from viKp6s and fiios) 

 does not mean " which lives on dead bodies/' but it means " life in 

 death." Here is the story of which this name is destined to preserve 

 the remembrance, and which Latreille himself has related in his 

 "Histoire des Insectes." Before 1792, Latreille was known only 

 from some memoirs which he had published on insects. He was 

 then priest at Brives-la-Gaillarde, and was arrested with the cures of 

 Limousin, who had not taken the oath. These unfortunates were 

 then taken to Bordeaux in carts, to be transported to Guiana. 

 Arrived at Bordeaux in the month of June, they were incarcerated in 

 the prison of the Grand Seminaire till a ship should be ready to take 

 them on board. In the meanwhile, the 9th Thermidor arrived, and 

 caused to be suspended for a while the execution of the sentence 

 which condemned to transportation the priests who had not taken 

 the oath. However, the prisons emptied themselves but slowly, 

 and those who had been condemned had none the less to go into 

 exile, only their transportation had been put off till the spring. 



Latreille remained detained at the prison of the Grand Se'mi-' 

 naire. In the same chamber which he occupied there was at the 



