Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Genus Buprestis

Buprestid Beetle - Buprestis aurulenta Buprestid - Buprestis lyrata Green Beetle? - Buprestis aurulenta Buprestis langii? - Buprestis adjecta Wood borer? - Buprestis lyrata Golden Buprestid - Buprestis aurulenta Lined Buprestis? - Buprestis lineata Gibbs' buprestid - Buprestis gibbsii - female
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Polyphaga
No Taxon (Series Elateriformia)
Superfamily Buprestoidea
Family Buprestidae (Metallic Wood-boring Beetles)
Subfamily Buprestinae
Tribe Buprestini
Genus Buprestis
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Cypriacis Casey 1909 [NB: treated as genus in (1) but not in (2)]
Explanation of Names
Buprestis Linnaeus 1758
The Romans called some colorful beetles buprestis, borrowed from the Greek Βούπρηστις, literally 'burn-cow', a poisonous beetle, which, ingested by cattle in the grass, causes them to swell up and die -- obviously not a reference to Buprestidae in modern sense, but probably to some kind of blister beetle. (From a Facebook post by Margarethe Brummermann)
Numbers
26 spp. in 5 subgenera in our area(3)(1), ~80 total(2)
Identification
revised in (4)
Range
holarctic (incl. most of NA) and Oriental(2)
Food
Larvae feed on wood of various conifers and deciduous trees, incl. Fagus (Beech), Populus (Cottonwood), Acer (Maple), and Quercus (Oak)(3)
Remarks
member of the subtribe Buprestina Leach 1815 that contains one more genus (in Eurasia)(2)
Works Cited
1.Bellamy C.L. The Buprestidae of North America (north of Mexico)
2.Bellamy C.L. (2013) The world of jewel beetles: A checklist of world Buprestoidea
3.American Beetles, Volume II: Polyphaga: Scarabaeoidea through Curculionoidea
Arnett, R.H., Jr., M. C. Thomas, P. E. Skelley and J. H. Frank. (eds.). 2002. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.
4.A revision of the genus Buprestis of North America north of Mexico
Helfer J.R. 1941. Entomologica Americana (N.S.) 21(3): 123–185.