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Updated: May 4, 2025
The metallic marvels of the Buprestis and the Ground-beetle; the amethyst, ruby, sapphire, emerald and topaz of the Humming-bird; glories which would exhaust the language of the lapidary jeweller: what are they in reality? Answer: a drop of urine.
It is the water of my well, whose temperature, in summer, is nearly twenty-two degrees Fahrenheit below that of the surrounding air. The Buprestis, in whom I have just produced inertia by means of a few taps, is installed on his back in a little flask which I seal hermetically and immerse in a bucket full of this cold water.
Although T had already been working this shot daily for two months and a half, and had obtained over 800 species of Coleoptera, this day's work added 32 new ones. Among these were 4 Longicorns, 2 Caribidae, 7 Staphylinidae, 7 Curculionidae, 2 Copridae, 4 Chrysomelidae, 3 Heteromera, 1 Elates, and 1 Buprestis.
I showed myself a ready pupil to my masters' teaching and used to paralyze a Buprestis or a Weevil almost as well as a Cerceris could have done. Why should I not to-day imitate that expert butcher, the Tarantula? With the point of a fine needle, I inject a tiny drop of ammonia at the base of the skull of a Carpenter-bee or a Grasshopper.
Up to recent years the Cerceris was considered to act with as much certainty as the Sphex, and to obey an infallible instinct which always guided it for the best in the interests of its offspring. The insects it attacks belong to the genus Buprestis. It consumes them in considerable numbers.
To assist the perfect insect, the grub first gnaws the under side of the bark, leaving a thin screen of cuticle untouched, and then sinks in the wood a perpendicular well, blocked with unresisting sawdust. That is on behalf of the future: the frail Buprestis will be able to leave without hindrance.
You could not find an ornament to match it save on the throats of certain Humming-birds and the wings of a few Butterflies in equatorial climes. Cf. The Life of the Fly: chap. vii. To adorn itself like this, in what Golconda does the insect gather its gems? In what diggings does it find its gold nuggets? What a pretty problem is that of a Buprestis' wing-case!
It dealt with a very singular fact concerning the manners of one of the hymenoptera, a wasp, a Cerceris, in whose nest Dufour had found small coleoptera of the genus Buprestis, which, under all the appearances of death, retained intact for an incredible time their sumptuous costume, gleaming with gold, copper, and emerald, while the tissues remained perfectly fresh.
He discovers the motives which dictate their peculiarities of choice; why the Cerceris, for instance, among all the victims at its disposal, never selects anything but the Buprestis and the weevils. He is familiar too with their tactics of warfare and their methods of conflict.
My best subjects have been the Giant Scarites and the Cloudy Buprestis; but how many others have resisted quite indomitably, or remained motionless for only a few seconds! The insect's return to the active state presents certain peculiarities which are well worthy of attention. The key to the problem lies here.
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