COLEOPTERA. 509 



remarkable for the spots of gold colour on an eniera.a ground ; in others, azure glitters upon the gold, 

 or various other metallic colours are exhibited. The body is in general oval, broad and obtuse, but 

 narrowed from the base to the tips of the elytra ; the thorax is broad and short ; the scutellum small 

 or wanting ; the elytra often toothed at the tips, and the legs short. They creep slowly, but their 

 flight is very active iu hot weather ; when attempted to be seized they fall to the ground. The females 

 have at the extremity of the body a corneous or leathery conical plate, composed of the last three 

 joints, which is probably the instrument with which they deposit their eggs in dry wood, upon which 

 the larvae feed ; the small species are found upon leaves or flowers, but others are only found in forests 

 or timber yards ; they sometimes make their appearance in houses, having been introduced into the wood 

 whilst in the larva or pupa state. 



Biiprestis, has the antennae of equal thickness throughout, and serrated from the third or fourth joint ; some of 

 the species [which are extremely numerous, of larire or moderate size, and chiefly extra-European,] have no 

 [visible] scutellum. Such are B.fascicidata, Linn., from the Cape of Good Hope, remaikable for the bundles of 

 hair with which it is clothed ; B. sternicornis, Linn., from the East Indies, having the mesosternum produced into 

 a long- porrected horn ; B. vittata and ocellaia, splendid Indian and Chinese species. The other species have a 

 [distinct visible] scutellum; such are B. gigas, Linn., from Cayenne, two inches long; and B. viridis, Linn., 

 [belonging to the subgenus Agrilus,'] a small English species, about a quarter of an inch long, and of a green colour. 

 Found upon trees. 



Trachys, Fab., has the body short and broad, or almost triangular ; the front excavated ; and the thorax lobed 

 behind. B. miniita, Linn., [a very minute, and not uncommon British species], 



Apliantsticits, Latr., has the antennae terminated by an oblong, compressed, sudden mass, formed of the last 

 four joints ; the forehead is deeply notched. They are of minute size, and of a linear form. Bupr. emarginata, 

 Fabr., [a rare British insect]. 



Melasis, Oliv., differs from all the rest in the antennae being strongly pectinated in the males and serrated 

 in the females ; the tarsal joints are cylindrical and entire. M. Buprestoides, Oliv., [a very local British species, 

 and found in Windsor and the New Forests]. 



[The Buprestida, notwithstanding the splendour of their colours,] have attracted, until lately, but 

 veiy little attention as respects their structural classification. Schonherr, and more recently Esch- 

 scholtz, in the Zoological Atlas, in vihicii Mteen gene/a are described; Solier, who has divided the 

 species into thirty-four genera in the Annals of the French Entomological Society, 1833 ; Gory and 

 Laporte, in their beautiful Histoire Naturelle et Iconographique des Insectes Coleopteres, in which they 

 are describing and figuring all the species of this brilliant famdy ; Laporte, in Sildermanns Revue Ento- 

 mologigue; Count Mannerheim, in a memoir published in the Bulletin Soc, Imperiale des Naturalistes de 

 Moscou, and several other modern authors, have investigated this beautiful but difficult tribe. The larvae 

 have also been recently observed by Messrs. Audouin, Aube, and Dr. Ratzeburg, [see ray Introdnc to 

 Mod. Classific, vol. i. p. 230, 231] ; they are of a flattened form, and are distinguished by their large, 

 flat head. 



The second tribe, that of the Elaterides, differs essentially from the preceding only in having the 

 posterior produced part of the prosteruum laterally compressed, and often slightly curved and unidentate, 

 and capable of being lodged at the will of the animal in a cavity of the breast, situated immediately 

 above the place of insertion of the second pair of feet, whereby these insects, when placed upon their 

 back, possess the power of leaping ; their mandibles are generally notched at the tip ; the palpi terminated 

 by a joint, much longer than the preceding, and of a hatchet-shape ; and the joints of the tarsi are 

 entire. This tribe comprises only the genus 



Elater, Linn., — 

 Which has the body generally narrow and more elongate than in Buprestis, and the posterior angles 

 of the thorax are prolonged into an acute point. They are called Skip-jacks ; in Latin Notopoda and 

 Elater ; and when laid upon their backs, being unable to raise themselves in consequence of the shortness 

 of their feet, they spring perpendicularly into the air, so as to fall upon their feet ; this is effected by 

 folding the legs close against the body, depressing the head and thorax, and then suddenly bringing the 

 point of the prosternum against the sides of the impression of the mesosternum with a jerk ; the body 

 being thus violently brought against the plane of position, is by its elasticity elevated into the air. The 

 sides of the prosternum have a canal, in which the insects conceal their antennae either partially or 

 entirely ; these organs are pectinated or ramose in some males. The females have at the extremity of 

 the body an elongated ovipositor, formed of two lateral pointed pieces, between which is the true oviduct. 



