Curious Facts in the History of Insects; Including Spiders and Scorpions. / A Complete Collection of the Legends, Superstitions, Beliefs, and Ominous Signs Connected with Insects; Together with Their Uses in Medicine, Art, and as Food; and a Summary of Their Remarkable Injuries and Appearances.

by Frank Cowan

Buprestidæ—Burn-cows.

Many species of the Buprestidæ are decorated with highly brilliant metallic tints, like polished gold upon an emerald ground, or azure upon a ground of gold; and their elytra, or wing-coverings, are employed by the ladies of China, and also of England, for the purpose of embroidering their dresses.[148] The Chinese have also attempted imitations of these insects in bronze, in which they succeed so well that the copy may be sometimes mistaken for the reality.[149] In Ceylon[150] and throughout India,[151] the golden wing-cases of two of this tribe, the Sternocera chrysis and S. sternicornis, are used to enrich the embroidery of the Indian zenana, while the lustrous joints of the legs are strung on silken threads, and form necklaces and bracelets of singular brilliancy. The Buprestis attenuata, ocellata and vittata are also wrought into various devices and trinkets by the Indians. The B. vittata is much admired among them. This insect is found in great abundance in China, and thence exported into India, where it is distributed at a low price.[152]

Mr. Osbeck saw in China a Buprestis maxima, which had been dried, and to which were fastened leaden wings so painted as to make them look like the wings of butterflies. This artificial monster, he adds, was to be sold in the vaults among other trifles.[153] The B. maxima is set up along with Butterflies in small boxes, and vended in the streets of Chinese cities.[154]

So many species of the Buprestidæ are clothed with such brilliant colors, that Geoffroy has thought proper

to designate them all under the generic appellation of Richard. The origin of this name is as singular as its application is fantastical. It was originally given to the Jay, in consequence of the facility with which that bird was taught to pronounce the word.[155]

Modern writers have been much divided in their opinion as to what genus the celebrated Buprestis of the ancients belongs. All indeed have regarded it as of the order Coleoptera, but here their agreement ceases. Linnæus seems to have looked upon it as a species of the genus to which he has given its name. Geoffroy thinks it to be a Carabus or Cicindela; M. Latrielle, to the genus Melöe; and Kirby and Spence to Mylabris.[156]

Of this Buprestis, Pliny says: “Incorporat with goat sewer, it taketh away the tettars called lichenes that be in the face.”[157] And Dr. James says that insects of this family “are all in common, inseptic, exulcerating, and (possess) a heating quality; for which reason, they are mixed up with medicines adapted to the cure of a Carcinoma, Lepra, and the malignant Lichen. Mixed in emollient pessaries, they provoke the Catamenial discharges.”[158]

The Greeks, it is said, commended the Buprestis in food.[159]