Buprestidae

views updated

Buprestidae (jewel beetles; class Insecta, order Coleoptera) The most beautiful of beetle families, often used in jewellery. The more spectacular species are tropical. The elytra and thorax are elongate, with bright metallic colours; they are often of a considerable size. The eyes are large, the antennae short and filiform. Adults are daytime nectar feeders; larvae are club-shaped, legless, and called ‘flat-headed borers’: the head is tiny, the prothorax unusually broad, the body narrow and tapering. The larvae live in trees or roots, where they gnaw flattened tunnels. Some mine leaves or stems. There are 11 500 species.

More From encyclopedia.com