jewel beetle

jewel beetle noun: any of the very many beetles of the family Buprestidae, known for their glossy, iridescent colours.

Image: Christian Fischer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

jewel beetle (plural jewel beetles)

Any of the very many beetles of the family Buprestidae, known for their glossy, iridescent colours.
- This effect can be produced not only by purposeful ringbarking with an axe but also by insects, such as longicorns and jewel beetles, feeding in the phloem-cambium under the bark.1996, Phillip W. Hadlington, Judith A. Johnston, Australian Trees: Their Care and Repair, page 5
- The black jewel beetle (Melanophila acuminata) was found to be attracted by forest fires, because burnt wood is the only suitable substrate for bringing up its offspring. The antennae of the black jewel beetle were proved to be highly sensitive and selective to guaiacol derivatives, compounds which...2007, Prodpran Thakeow, Gerrit Holighaus, Stefan Schütz, “11: Volatile Organic Compounds for Wood Assessment”, in Ursula Kües, editor, Wood Production, Wood Technology, and Biotechnological Impacts...

The black jewel beetle (Melanophila acuminata) was found to be attracted by forest fires, because burnt wood is the only suitable substrate for bringing up its offspring.2007, Prodpran Thakeow, Gerrit Holighaus, Stefan Schütz, “11: Volatile Organic Compounds for Wood Assessment”, in Ursula Kües, editor, Wood...
The ceiling and the chandelier of the main hall were covered with the wing cases of thousands of Asian jewel beetles.2009, Terry Smith, What Is Contemporary Art?, page 172:

plural	jewel beetles

What does jewel beetle mean?: Jewel beetle means any of the very many beetles of the family Buprestidae, known for their glossy, iridescent colours.
What is jewel beetle in Tamil?: Jewel beetle in Tamil is பொன்வண்டு (poṉvaṇṭu). See Jewel beetle meaning in Tamil.
How do you use jewel beetle in a sentence?: The black jewel beetle (Melanophila acuminata) was found to be attracted by forest fires, because burnt wood is the only suitable substrate for bringing up its offspring.
What part of speech is jewel beetle?: Jewel beetle is a noun.
What is the plural of jewel beetle?: The plural of jewel beetle is jewel beetles.

Adapted from Wiktionary: jewel beetle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “jewel beetle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jewel_beetle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.