PLATE XCV. 



collectors of that time to enrich their cabinets with specimens, and 

 that they were sold at a moderate price, which was really the case. 

 Before that period, the insect was esteemed more rare, and bore a 

 higher price than even that celebrated insect emphatically denomi- 

 nated the Diamond Beetle," to which in its general habit it is nearly 

 allied, and to which it scarcely yields in point of beauty. Since that 

 time no further supply having been introduced, the species has 

 become gradually uncommon, and it is now rarely seen except in the 

 older collections of exotic entomology. 



The fertile regions of South America are well known to be 

 productive of the most brilliant objects of the insect tribe with 

 which we are acquainted, and those of the particular family to which 

 our insect appertains, the Curculiones of Linnaeus and Eabricius are 

 distinctly known to rank among the number of the most splendid 

 species. There is indeed a natural family of those insects, to which 

 our present insect belongs, at the head of which the species 

 C. imperialis may be placed, that seems to vie with each other in the 

 gorgeous splendour of their decorations, and it must be confessed 

 that they are not eclipsed in this respect by any others of the insect 

 race ; such are the Curculiones sumptuosus, splendidus, and several 

 of their analogies, all which are natives of South America, and these 

 collectively serve to shew that those regions yield to none in the 

 splendour of those natural productions with which the entomologist 

 is so delighted. 



The present insect, which in allusion to the metallic golden 

 lustre it displays, we have denominated Croesus, follows naturally 

 next in succession after the varieties of Curculio imperialis, the size 

 is nearly the same, though in some instances it may be in a trifling 



