220 BurEESTiDiE. INSECTS. Eucnemid.h:. 
members of the family, may he day insects. The insects 
feed on tlie sap exuding from trees. The larvae are 
not unlike those of the other Lamellicorns. 
We have four species in Britain belonging to as 
many genera — Lncanus, Dorcus, Platycerus, and 
Sinodendron. 
Family— PASSALID.®. 
The PASSALIDA5 are a strangely parallel and paral- 
lelopipedal set of beetles, grooved generally on the 
elytra and depressed. — (See figure of Passalus inter- 
ruptus, Plate 1, fig. 5.) The largest known species is 
from Guatemala. There are many species. 
The larvae of this group have the third pair of legs 
much reduced, so as to be scarcely visible. The 
antennae have ten joints, and the segments of the body 
are smooth beneath. 
The Passalus cornutus is a common species in the 
United States. It is of a very deep-brown or black 
Fig. 97. 
Larva of the Passalus distinctns. 
colour, highly polished, and with the elytra furrowed 
by parallel longitudinal lines. The head has a short 
blunt horn, curved forwards. 
Group— SERRICO RNI A. 
The Serricorn beetles are so named from the antennae 
being serrated or pectinated, particular!}' in the males. 
They have two maxillary and two labial palpi, and the 
body is generally long and narrow. Mr. Westwood 
has changed the name into Priocerata, which means 
in Greek what Serricorn is in Latin. This great 
group is divided into two — one called Sternoxi,* in 
which the sternum or breast is sharpish-pointed behind 
and received into a fissure in front of the mesosternum. 
The legs are generally short and more or less retractile. 
The second division is named Malacoderms,'\ from 
the softness of the elytra ; in this the sternum is simple. 
Section— STERNOXI. 
Of the Sternoxi section, characterized above, we 
come to the 
Family— BUPRESTID AH. 
A very large family, most of which are exotic. The 
species of this family abound in the warmer parts of the 
world. Their eggs are oval and whitish, and laid under 
the bark of trees or in holes in the wood. The larvae, 
when hatched, make great havmc with their redoubt- 
able jaws and insatiable perseverance in gnawing. Our 
* (TTE^vov and sharp. ^ soft, skin. 
Agrilus lives in oak bark, and I took live specimens of 
the brilliant creature out of a large wart-like excres- 
cence on the bark. 
The genus Julodis (fig. 98) contains many large 
African species, often singularly covered with tufts of 
yellow or grey hairs. 
Stervocera is an Indian and African genus. The 
S. feldspathica is a beautifully coloured species from 
Fig. 98. Fig. 99. 
Jiilodis Kothii Polybothrys zygasni. 
Congo, with a lustre on its elytra something like that 
on Labrador feldspar — hence the name I gave it. Fig. 
99 is that of a Madagascar Polybothrys. Madagascar 
Buprestidee are particularly curious and fine in form 
and colour. The elytra of some of the showy Indian 
species of Chrysochroa are worked up and formed into 
artificial flowers, or into richly-coloured decorative 
ornament to ladies’ articles of dress. On Plate 2, fig. 
8, is figured the very showy Chrysochroa Edwardii, 
an Indian species. 
In Guiana, one beetle called the Sun Mama beetle, 
is used, like the Indian Chrysochrose, to ornament dress. 
The species of the genus Catoxanthce, especially one 
of them, the C. hicolor, green above, yellow on the 
under side,* is one of the largest of the family. The 
Australian genera Stigmodera and Castiarina are very 
numerous, and many of them charmingly pleasing, and 
even brilliantly coloured. 
The Brazilian Pcesiloptera, Pcecilonota, 
and other genera ; the curious and endless 
species of Agrili and Anthaxicp.; the strange, 
short Trachys — (Plate 2, fig. 2, Trachys 
minutus) — I can only allude to ; and the 
genera Ancylochira, Chrysoholhrys^ &c., 
quite eclipse our feebly represented Bupres- 
tidcB. 
Among the Buprestidse there is one found 
in the United States, the grub of whicih 
bores under the bark and into the solid wood 
of the apple tree, and thus often does great 
mischief to the orchards. 
Of the family Eucnemidas there are 
many fine exotic species and genera very 
curious and interesting to entomologists. There are 
only five British species, which belong to the genera 
Throscus, Cerophytum, Melasis, dud Microi'hagus. Fig. 
100 shows the larva of Lampra rutilans, an European 
Buprestis. 
* KOC.TOI, ftlld 
Fig. 100. 
Larva of 
Lampra 
rutilans. 
