‖ buprestis
(b(j)uːˈprɛstɪs)
[L. buprestis, a. Gr. βούπρηστις, lit. ‘ox-burner’.]
1. An unidentified insect of the ancients, very harmful to cattle; ‘perhaps of the genus Mylabris’ (Kirby and Spence).
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xiii. (1495) 773 This Burestes lyeth amonge herbes and grasse: and the oxe swalowyth this beste, and whan this Burestes is swalowed he chaufeth sodenly the lyuour of the oxe and makyth hym breke with grete payne and sorowe. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 377 There is a kind of insect or flie called Buprestis..kine and oxen catch much harme by this flie. [1658 Rowland Mouffet's Theat. Ins. 1001, I have seen about Heidelberg two Buprestes like Scarabees.] |
2. Zool. A genus of beetles, natives of the tropics, remarkable for brilliant colouring. Hence the family Buprestidæ, rarely anglicized as buˈprestidans.
| 1835 Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. II. xx. 364 The most splendid and brilliant of the whole Order, the Buprestidans. |