Uupr&stida:.'] SERRICORKIA. 67 



BUPRESTIDJE. 



This genus contains a very large number of genera and species ; in 

 the catalogue of the Buprestidae published by Gemruinger and Von 

 Harold in 1869 one hundred and fourteen genera and about two 

 thousand seven hundred species are enumerated, and in the supplement 

 published by M. Kerremans in 1883, twelve new genera and between 

 nine hundred and a thousand new species have been added ; by far the 

 ^r-;it majority of the species belonging to the family are found in 

 tropical countries ; they are amongst the most brilliant and strikingly 

 coloured of all the Coleoptera ; in fact, owing to the splendour of their 

 metallic tints, they are often mounted in articles of jewellery, and 

 their elytra are employed for the embroidering of dresses, scarves, and 

 other articles of wearing apparel, so that they are perhaps amongst the 

 most familiar of all beetles to the ordinary observer. The representa- 

 tives of the family contained in the European fauna are comparatively 

 few and obscure, but two or three genera are fairly well represented in 

 the south of Europe ; the total number of genera that occur on the 

 Continent is twenty-seven, represented by upwards of three hundred 

 species ; in Britain, however, only four genera and ten species occur, 

 some of which are extremely rare and are confined to the south of 

 England ; only two species are found very rarely in Scotland. 



The following are the chief characters of ihe Buprestidae : Head 

 vertical, with the mandibles short and stout, inserted into the thorax as 

 far as the eyes, which are very large, elliptical, and never emarginate; 

 antennae inserted upon the front, 11-jointed, short, usually serrate, at 

 least towards apex. 



Thorax fitting closely to elytra, prosternum with a process behind 

 which fits into the mesosternum, or sometimes attains the metasternum; 

 anterior coxal cavities open behind; mesosternum short, with the 

 epimera reaching the coxae ; metasternum with broad episterna, and with 

 the epimera visible; elytra covering abdomen, or leaving only the 

 pygidium exposed, wings ample ; abdomen apparently composed of only 

 five segments; legs short, tarsi 5-joiutod. 



The larvae are very remarkable, being chiefly distinguished by the great develop- 

 ment of the prothoracic segment, the smallness of the head, and the rudimentary 

 conditioner total absence of the legs ; the head is retractile within the prothorax, 

 the antenna; are very short, and there are no visible ocelli ; the mandibles nre short, 

 hard, and toothed at the extremity and eminently fitted for gnawing the wood in 

 which t lii-y live ; the maxillae, however, are very small ; the mcso- and metathorax 

 are much shorter and narrower than the prothorax ; the abdominal segments are nine 

 in number, the anal segment being projecting and presenting the appearance of a 

 tenth segment; the stigmata are crescentsha|>ed, and consist of nine pairs, of which 

 eight are situated on the eight first segments of the abdomen and the ninth on the 

 mesothorax, or between that segment and the prothorax. 



These larva) live under bark or often in solid wood, through which they bore 

 galleries; hence they have often been impoited, and several continental genera, 

 such as Dvcerca, Ptosiwa, Chryto^othrit, &., have been included as indigenous in 



r 1' 



