COLEOPTERA. 509 
remarkable for the spots of gold colour on an emerald ground ; in others, azure glitters upon the gold, 
or various other metallic colours are exhibited. The body is in general oval, broad and obtuse, but 
narrowed from the base to the tips of the elytra ; the thorax is broad and short ; the scutellum small 
or wanting ; the elytra often toothed at the tips, and the legs short. Tliey creep slowly, but their 
flight is very active in hot weather; when attempted to be seized they fall to the ground. The females 
have at the extremity of the body a corneous or leathery conical plate, composed of the last three 
joints, which is probably the instrument with which they deposit their eggs in dry wood, upon which 
the larvte feed ; the small species are found upon leaves or flowers, but others are only found in forests 
or timber yards ; they sometimes make their appearance in houses, having been introduced into the wood 
whilst in the larva or pupa state. 
Buprestis, has the antennae of equal thickness throughout, and serrated from the third or fourth joint ; some of 
the species [which are extremely numerous, of large or moderate size, and chiefly extra-European,] have no 
[visible] scutellum. Such are B.fasciculata, Linn., from the Cape of Good Hope, remarkable for the bundles of 
hair with which it is clothed ; B. sternicornis, Linn., from the East Indies, having the mesosternum produced into 
a long porrected horn ; B. vittata and ocellata, splendid Indian and Chinese species. The other species have a 
[distinct visible] scutellum ; such are B. gigas, Linn., from Cayenne, two inches long ; and B. viridis, Linn., 
[belonging to the subgenus Agrilus,'] a small English species, about a quarter of an inch long, and of a green colour. 
Found upon trees. 
Trachys, Fab., has the body short and broad, or almost triangular ; the front excavated ; and the thorax lobed 
behind. B. minuia, Linn., [a very minute, and not uncommon British species], 
Aphanisticus, Latr., has the antennae terminated by an oblong, compressed, sudden mass, formed of the last 
four Joints ; the forehead is deeply notched. They are of minute size, and of a linear form. Bupr. emarginata, 
Fabr., [a rare British insect]. 
Melasis, Oliv., differs from all the rest in the antennae being strongly pectinated in the males and serrated 
in the females ; the tarsal joints are cylindrical and entire. M. Buprestoides, Oliv., [a very local British species, 
and found in Windsor and the New Forests]. 
[The Buprestid(S, notwithstanding the splendour of their colours,] have attracted, until lately, but 
very little attention as respects their structural classification. Schonherr, and more recently Esch- 
scholtz, in the Zoological Atlas, in which fifteen genera are described ; Sober, who has divided the 
species into thirty-four genera in the Annals of the French Entomological Society, 1833 ; Gory and 
Laporte, in their beautiful Histoire Naturelle et Iconographique des Insectes Coleopteres, iu which they 
are describing and figuring all the species of this brilliant family ; Laporte, in Silbermanns Revue Ento- 
mologique ; Count Mannerheim, in a memoir published in the Bulletin Soc. Imperiale des Naturalistes de 
Moscou, and several other modern authors, have investigated this beautiful but difficult tribe. The larvse 
have also been recently observed by Messrs. Audouin, Aube, and Dr. Ratzeburg, [see my Introduc. to 
Mod. Classific., vol. i. p. 230, 231] ; they are of a flattened form, and are distinguished by tlieir large, 
flat head. 
The second tribe, that of the Elaterides, differs essentially from the preceding only in having the 
posterior produced part of the prosternum laterally compressed, and often slightly curved and unidentate, 
and capable of being lodged at the will of the animal in a cavity of the breast, situated immediately 
above the place of insertion of the second pair of feet, whereby these insects, when placed upon their 
back, possess the power of leaping ; their mandibles are generally notched at the tip ; the palpi terminated 
by a joint, much longer than the preceding, and of a hatchet-shape ; and the joints of the tarsi are 
entire. This tribe comprises only the genus 
Elater, Linn., — 
Which has the body generally narrow and more elongate than in Buprestis, and the posterior angles 
of the thorax are prolonged into an acute point. They are called Skip-jacks ; in Latin Notopoda and 
Elater ; and when laid upon their backs, being unable to raise themselves in consequence of the shortness 
of their feet, they spring perpendicularly into the air, so as to fall upon their feet ; this is effected by 
folding the legs close against the body, depressing the head and thorax, and then suddenly bringing the 
point of the prosternum against the sides of the impression of the mesosternum with a jerk ; the body 
being thus violently brought against the plane of position, is by its elasticity elevated into the air. The 
sides of the prostemum have a canal, in which the insects conceal their antennae either partially or 
entirely; these organs are pectinated or ramose in some males. The females have at the extremity of 
the body an elongated ovipositor, formed of two lateral pointed pieces, between which is the true oviduct. 
