THE SERRICORN BEETLES. 
45 
brown ; the surface is smooth and polished ; the upper jaws 
of the male are Ions;, curved like ... „„ 
® . Fig. 20. 
a sickle, and furnished internally 
beyond the middle with a little 
tooth ; those of the female are 
much shorter, and also toothed ; 
the head of the male is broad and 
smooth, that of the other sex nar- 
rower and rough with punctures. 
The body of this beetle measures 
from one inch to one inch and 
a quarter, exclusive of the jaws. 
The time of its appearance is in 
July and the beginning of Au- 
gust. The grubs live in the trunks and roots of various 
kinds of trees, hut particularly in those of old apple-trees, 
willows, and oaks. All the foregoing beetles have, by some 
naturalists, been gathered into a single tribe, called lamelli- 
corn or leaf-horned beetles, on account of the leaf-like joints 
wherewith the end of their antennae is provided. 
The beetles next to be described have been brought to- 
O 
getlier into one great tribe, named serricorn or saw-horned 
beetles, because the tips of the joints of their antennae usually 
project more or less on the inside, somewhat like the teeth 
of a saw. The beetles belonging to the family Bufrestid.e, 
or the Buprestians, have antennae of this kind. The Bupres- 
tis of the ancients, as its name signifies in Greek, was a poi- 
sonous insect, which, being swallowed with grass by grazing 
cattle, produced a violent inflammation, and such a degree 
of swelling as to cause the cattle to burst. Linnaeus, how- 
ever, unfortunately applied this name to the insects of the 
above-mentioned family, none of which are poisonous to ani- 
mals, and are rarely, if ever, found upon the grass. It is in 
allusion to the original signification of the word Buprestis , 
that popular English writers on natural history sometimes 
give the name of burncow to the harmless Buprestians ; while 
