CIOIDJ3. — BUPRESTID2E. 147 



though very few have been described from the Indian region *. 

 The genus Cis is spread over the chief part of the world, and two 

 or three species have been recorded from Ceylon. Candeze also 

 has described a genus Pterogenius from the same island. The 

 members of the family are found in fungi or old wood, or in 

 decayed wood affected by fungoid growths ; they are very gregarious, 

 and may be found occasionally in hundreds in a single large fungus. 



The laryae are elongate, cylindrical, fleshy grubs, with short 

 antennae and moderately long legs, and the segments are of much 

 the same character except the last which bears two longer or 

 shorter hooks or spines, which are somewhat recurved towards the 

 back ; underneath these at the base there is a protuberance which 

 is really the basal process or proleg. The pupae also are furnished 

 at the apex with the same sort of spines ; in Cis mellyi, and 

 probably in other species, the spines in the larva are replaced by a 

 broad chitinous tube, but the pupa terminates in the normal hooks. 



The family has usually been placed near the Bostrychiile, 

 and has been even regarded as a lower form of this family. 

 Dr. Sharp, however, is inclined to refer them to a position near 

 the Colydiid.e and Cryptophagid.e, and in their 4- jointed tarsi 

 and also in the formation of the front and middle coxae they 

 certainly agree with the former of these families. Their real 

 position cannot, however, be said to have been completely settled. 



Family 68. BUPKESTID.E. 



Head very short, vertical, inserted into the prothorax as far as the 

 eyes ; antennae, inserted on the front, short, nearly always serrate, 

 eleven-jointed ; anterior and middle coxa? globular, with distinct tro- 

 chantins ; anterior coxal cavities widely open behind ; posterior coxa? 

 transverse ; prosternum prolonged into a process behind, which jits 

 into the mesosternum ; abdomen with five ventral segments, the first 

 two connate ; legs short, tarsi five-jointed, joints one to four with more 

 or less developed membranous appendages beneath. Very conspicuous 

 insects, in most cases, and often very brilliantly metallic. 



Lacordaire (1857) states that 1200 species belonging to the 

 family were known in his time, but they have, owing to their con- 

 spicuous coloration, been largely collected, and at the present time 

 about 5000 species have been described. A large number of the 

 species are amongst the most brilliantly metallic of all insects, and 

 they are in many cases used as articles of jewellery, with appro- 

 priate settings, while the elytra of some of them have been 



* In Mellie's well known "Monographie de l'ancien genre Cis" (Ana. Soc. 

 Ent. France, 1848, p. 245 etc.) not a single species is recorded from India or 

 Ceylon. 



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