ORDER COLEOPTERA. 311 



They walk slowly, but their flight is very agile when the 

 weather is hot and dry. If attempted to be seized, they let 

 themselves fall to the ground. The females have at the 

 posterior extremity of the abdomen, a coriaceous or corneous 

 part in the form of a conical lamina, composed of three pieces 

 (the last rings), and which is probably an instrument with 

 which they deposit their eggs in the dry wood, in which 

 their larvas reside. Many small species are to be met with 

 on flowers and leaves, but the others remain for the most 

 part in forests, &c. They sometimes assume the perfect 

 state in houses, being transported there in the larva or 

 nymph state, along with the wood. 



Sometimes the antennas are altogether saw-like. The in- 

 termediate articulations of the tarsi are in the form of a heart 

 reversed, and the penultimate, at least, is bifid. The palpi 

 are filiform, or slightly more thick at the end. The jaws are 

 bilobate. 



BuPRESTis (Proper). L. 



Whose antennae are of the same thickness throughout, and 

 serrated from the third or fourth articulation. 



Some have no scutellum. B. fasciculata. Lin. Oliv. 

 Col. ii. 32., iv. 38, about an inch in length, ovoid, convex, 

 very punctuated and wrinkled ; of a golden or coppery 

 green ; sometimes obscure, with small tufts of yellowish or 

 reddish hairs. Elytra entire. — At the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and sometimes in such great abundance on the same shrub, 

 that it seems altogether charged with flowers. 



B. Sternicornis. Lin. Oliv. Col. ibid, vi. 52, a little 

 larger ; of the same form ; of a green a little golden, very 

 brilliant. Some thick sunken points, the bottom of which is 

 furnished with whitish scales on the cases ; three teeth at 

 their extremity. The posterior sternum is advanced in the 

 form of a horn. — East Indies. 



