47 



what was once a female Attacus Polyphemus. " There it is," he said, looking at it with much 

 admiration, " it is rather crumpled (it had about half of all its wings cut off by the tin box), 

 but I daresay you will be able to straighten it out again." 



Thanks to the efforts of Messrs Harris, Fitch, and Riley, in the United States ; Curtis 

 and Wood, in England ; and Saunders, Provancher, and Bethune, in Canada, amongst many 

 others, to popularize Economic Entomology, it has made great strides of late years ; and the 

 exceedingly low figure at which their works may be obtained, brings it within the power of 

 every one to possess himself of information which will enable him to fight against most of 

 the insect pests, likely to occur to any extent, in our Dominion. I herewith contribute my 

 mite to the cause, in the shape of an outline sketch of the family Buprestidae. The large 

 number of species included even in our Canadian list of these beetles, will not allow me to 

 more than describe the leading characteristics of the different genera with some of the mure 

 interesting species. My object is to give such an idea of the general appearance and habits 

 of these insects in their different stages as will enable the horticulturist and farmer to distin- 

 guish them, and check their ravages. Besides my own observations, I have embodied what 

 I considered most interesting from the works of the best authors on the subject, and as some 

 of these are difficult to obtain, I have repeated some facts which are probably known to most 

 Entomologists, but possibly are not to the 2;reater number of those who will receive our 

 Annual Report. The classification I have followed is that of Lacordaire, as adopted by Dr. 

 Leconte in his Classification of the Coleoptera of North America, published in 1863. I have, 

 too, used to a great extent the words of the latter, in the scientific descriptions at the end of 

 this paper. 



The Buprestidae, form the first section of that division of Serricorn Coleoptera, 

 known by the name of Sternoxi, or Sharpbreasted, and have the under part of the 

 thorax {Lat. sternum — breast-bone) prolonged into a point. 



The word " Buprestis " is an interesting one, and is one of the scarce instances in 

 which the great naturalist, Linnaeus, gave an inappropriate name ; its literal meaning is 

 " ox-burner," derived from two Greek words /3ovs, an ox, and -n-p-qOw, I inflame. Amongst 

 the ancients the names Buprestis, Vulprestis, Bustrepis, Bubestes, etc., were applied to a 

 poisonous insect, which, when eaten by cattle as it lay hidden in the grass, it was averred, 

 caused them to inflame, swell, and burst ; indeed, so noxious was it considered that a 

 special law was made against its use, in the Pandects of Budseus, which was to the effect 

 that " whosoever should administer a Buprestis, with intent to kill, should be held guilty 

 of a capital offence and condemned to die by the Cornelian Law." Geoffroy, adopting 

 the opinion of Mouffet, considered the " Buprestis " of Pliny to be the Carabus " of 

 Linnaeus ; but Latreille, who published a memoir on the subject in 1812, considered it to 

 be a Meloe, the species of which live among grass and low herbage, and, moreover, possess 

 very strong blistering properties. Following this suggestion, and assisted by Belon, who 

 discovered an insect on Mount Athos with the same properties and called by the inhabi 

 tants " Voupristi," Kirby & Spence seem to have correctly identified the insect of the 

 ancients as a Mylabris. The present species, which are classed under the head " Bu- 

 prestidse," have nothing whatever in common with it except the name, and that they have 

 wrongfully usurped. 



The Buprestidse form an immense family of gorgeously-coloured insects, containing 

 many tribes, sub-tribes, groups, genera, and in all about 1,500 species. They are pretty 

 generally scattered over the whole world, being, however, much more numerous in warm 

 climates. In brightness of colour they by far surpass every other family of insects ; in 

 fact Dame Nature seems to have outdone herself in the adornment of these living gems, 

 and to have used them as experiments to see what startling effects and contrasts she 

 could produce. As a rule their surfaces are highly polished, having the appearance of 

 burnished metal — gold, bronze, steel or copper, and seem to be glazed with some surface- 

 colour, which changes as they are viewed from different angles. Green and crimson are 

 the two prevailing hues; but there is hardly any imaginable shade that cannot be found 

 amongst them, they are particularly remarkable for metallic tints. That peculiarly beau- 

 tiful green known as " beetle-green " takes its name from the elytra of certain species, 

 which are used in India and South America for the ornamentation of ladies' dresses, 

 baskets, fans and other objects. 



The sizes and shape* presented by the different genera of this family are no less re- 



