PLATE XCV. 



degree smaller ; its near similitude has been already noticed. 

 The general colour of the insect, like that of Imperialis when its 

 coating of brilliant scales is rubbed away, is a deep glossy black ; 

 the snout is somewhat lengthened, or rather longer than the thorax ; 

 the thorax is black, golden at the sides and tuberculated or rough 

 with raised dots, and the centre marked with a golden sulcation or 

 sunken hne. The wing-cases are black, and so striated with 

 impressed dots as to form alternate elevated lines and punctured 

 furrows, which are deeply and somewhat irregularly marked with 

 excavated spots of a sub-ovate form, and within which one or more of 

 the impressed points appear most commonly to lie longitudinally down 

 the centre. Those furrows are lined with small brilliant scales of a 

 golden green colour, the sub-ovate excavations with scales resplendent 

 with the auriferous lustre of the purest gold, and so nearly resem- 

 bling the metallic hue of gold itself as to assume rather the appearance 

 of art than nature ; those spots are so conspicuous and distinct as to 

 have obtained the insect the name of the " Gold- Splash Diamond 

 Beetle," and which as a trivial appellation is sufficiently characteristic 

 of the difference that prevails between this species and its affinity 

 C. imperialis. This golden lustre pervades as well tlie lower surface, 

 excepting only that the brilliancy is more general, the black colour 

 of the beetle being concealed by the closer and more uniform com- 

 pactness with which the brilliant scales, to which it is indebted for 

 this colouring is disposed. The legs are black and very slightly 

 ciliated, a character of some importance to be considered in defining 

 the species^ since there are other insects of the same tribe which are 

 distinguished by the hairyness of those limbs. 



In order to convey a more correct idea of the appearance of 

 this insect, we have found it necessary to give the figures rather 

 larger than life ; the natural size is represented by the shaded 

 impression shown on the sandy ground at the })ottom of the plate. 



