220 



Bupp.estid.t:.- 



-INSECTS.- 



-EUCNEMID.E. 



members of the family, may be day insects. The insects 

 feed on tl)e sap exuding from trees. The larvae are 

 not imlike those of the other Lamellicorns. 



We have four species in Britain belonging to as 

 many genera — Lucantts, Dorctts, Platycerus, and 

 Sinodendron. 



Family— PASSALID^. 



The PassaliDjE are a strangely parallel and paral- 

 lelopipedal set of beetles, grooved generally on the 

 elytra and depressed. — (See figure of Passalus iiitrr- 

 rnptus, Plate 1, fig. 5.) The largest known species is 

 from Guatemala. Tliere are many species. 



The larvEB of this group have the third pair of legs 

 much reduced, so as to be scarcely visible. The 

 antennae have ten joints, and the segments of the body 

 are smooth beneath. 



The Passnbis cornuius is a common species in the 

 I'liited States It is of a very deep bruwn or black 



Larva of ihe rass;ihis iUsiinctii:j. 



colour, highly polished, and witli the elytra furrowed 

 by parallel longitudinal lines. Tlie head has a shoit 

 blunt horn, curved forwards. 



Group— SERRICOliXIA. 



The Serricorn beetles are so named from the antennae 

 being serrated or pectinated, particularly in the males. 

 They have two maxillary and two labial palpi, and the 

 body is generally long and narrow. Mr. Westwood 

 has changed the name into Priocerata, which means 

 in Greek what Serricorn is in Latin. This great 

 group is divided into two — one called Slcrnoxi,* in 

 which the sternum or breast is sharijish-pointed behind 

 and received into a fissure in front of the mesosternum. 

 The legs are generally short and more or less retractile. 

 The second division is named Malacoderms,^ from 

 the softness of the elytra; in this the sternum is simple. 



Section— STEKNOXI. 



Of the Slernoxi section, characterized above, wo 

 come to the 



Family— BUPKESTID.E. 



A very large family, most of which are exotic. The 

 ppccies of this family abound in the warmer parts of the 

 world. Their eggs are oval and whitish, and laid under 

 the bark of trees or in holes in the wood. The larvoe, 

 when hatched, make great havoc with their redoubt- 

 able jaws and insatiable perseverance in gnawing. Our 



< and olui sliarp. 



|^«/a%a;, 



soft, S.{, 



skin. 



Agrilus lives in oak bark, and I took live specimens of 

 tlie brilliant creature out of a large wart-like excres- 

 cence on the bark. 



The genus Julodis (fig. 98) contains many large 

 African species, often singularly covered with tufts of 

 yellow or grey hairs. 



Sternocera is an Indian and African genus. The 

 S. feldspcit/tica is a beautifully coloured species from 



Fitr. 98. Fig. 90. 



Jiil.jdis I'olliii 



Polvbnthivs zvgieni. 



Fig. 100. 



Congo, with a lustre on its elytra something like that 

 on Labrador feldspar — hence the name I gave it. Fig. 



99 is that of a Madagascar Polybothrys. Madagascar 

 Buprestidae are particularly curious and fine in form 

 and colour. The elytra of some of the showy Indian 

 species of Chrysochroa are worked up and formed into 

 artificial flowers, or into richly-coloured decorative 

 ornajT.ent to ladies' articles of dress. On Plate 2, fig. 

 8. is figured the very showy Chrysochroa Edwardii, 

 an Indian species. 



In Guiana, one beetle called the Sun Mama beetle, 

 is used, like the Indian ClirysochroEe, to ornament dress. 



The species of the genus CatoxanlhiV, especially one 

 of them, the C. hicoloi; green above, yellow on the 

 imder side,* is one of the largest of the family. Tlie 

 Australian genera Slifjinodera and Castiarhia are very 

 numerous, and many of them charmingly pleasing, and 

 even brilliantly coloured. 



The Brazilian Pcs^iloptera, Pacilonota, 

 and other genera ; the curious and endless 

 species of ^;/?v7j and Anthaxim; the strange, 

 short Trac/(2/.5 — (Plate 2, fig. 2, Truchys 

 minutus) — I can only allude to ; and the 

 genera Ancylochira, Chrysoholhrys, Slq.. 

 ijuite eclipse our feebly represented Biipre^- 

 tidce. 



Among the Buprestida; there is one founil 

 in the United States, the grub of which 

 bores under the bark and into the solid wood 

 of the apple tree, and thus often does great 

 mischief to the orchards. 



Of the family Eucne.mid,e there are 

 many fine exotic species and genera very 

 curious and interesting to entomologists. Thei'e are 

 only five British species, which belong to the genera 

 Throscus, Cerophytum, Melasis, &nd Microrhagus. Fig. 



100 shows the larva of Lamjyra ruiilans, an European 

 Biiprestis. 



• xxTx and Ji.,80.-. 



