Diamond Beetle

( Originally Published 1851 )

This Beetle belongs to the weevil tribe, and its scientific denomination is the Imperial Weevil. It inhabits South America, chiefly Brazil, and is the most resplendently colored of all the insect class.

The ground color of the wings is a coal black, with numerous parallel lines of sparkling indentations round, which are of a green gold color, highly brilliant, from minute reflecting scales, like the scales of a butterfly. There is another rich and elegant species of this insect in India; where, however, it is so very scarce, that the wing cases (and sometimes the whole insect), are set like a gem on rings, and worn by the great. The body is of a silky green with broad golden bands. This insect is the Curculio regalis.