BUPRESTIDiE. 163 



DESCRIPTION. 



Body oblong, punctured, hairy with scattered minute decumbent bristles resembling little scales, 

 of a bronzed and glossy copper colour. Front with a slight sinus : prothorax transverse, trilobed at 

 the base ; disk longitudinally convex and naked ; sides hairy ; surface in the disk covered with minute 

 transverse undulated lines curving upwards, and sides reticulated with them : scutellum transverse 

 acuminated: elytra uneven, constricted before the middle, clouded and obsoletely banded towards the 

 apex with minute whitish bristles ; tips rounded, serrulate : prosternum broad, a little constricted in 

 the middle, rounded at the apex. 



Having gone through the Chilognathimorphous beetles of Mr. Mac Leay, the 

 connection of which with the Lamellicorn and other tribes, probably owing to the 

 non-discovery of existing intermediate forms, it is at present difficult to trace, — 

 though the Elateridans appear clearly to go off at one extremity by the Cebrioni- 

 dans to the soft-bodied Coleoptera, or Malacoderma, &c. of Latreille, and so per- 

 haps by other tribes, as I shall endeavour to shew hereafter, to the confines of the 

 Orthoptera — having accomplished this task we must again retrace our steps, and 

 returning to the lignivorous Lamellicorns, pursue our course towards the Capri- 

 corns and other wood-devourers amongst the beetles. There are two main roads 

 by which we may proceed, one from the Lucanidans, or genuine Rectocerous 

 beetles, which lead to the Capricorns ; and the other from the Passalidans, that do 

 not properly answer that denomination, the last ten joints of their antennae not 

 forming an angle with the first, leading to an osculant tribe of timber-borers, which 

 from that circumstance, I would call Xylotrypa, distinguished by their cylindrical 

 form, including the modern genera Scolytus, Hylessinus, Bostrichus, &c. I shall 

 begin with the first, and, after Gyllenhal and Mac Leay, shall consider Trogosita 

 as nearly connected with the Lucanidce, particularly Platycerus. 



Y 



