2 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



groups. The Tari are, for the most part, prettily coloiu'ecl insects, their elytra 

 being more or less ornamented with longitudinal lines or stripes. They reside, 

 principally, beneath stones, and delight in open grassy spots. 



1. Tarus lineatus. 

 T. piceo-niger punctatus, elyti'is punctato-striatis, prothoracis latcribus, clytrorum margine exteriore 



vittaque clongata subconfluenti, antennis pedibusque testaceis. 

 Long. Corp. lin. 32^-4. 



Carahus lineatus, Sehou. Syn. Lis. i. 179. t. 3. f. 5 (180G). 

 Ci/mindis Uneata, Dej. Spec, des Col. i. 207 (1825). 



vittata, Dalil. in litt. 



Lehia lineola, Dufour, Ann. Gen. Soc. Phys. ^^. 322 (1843). 



Habitat sub lapidibus in montibus Maderac, tempore hiberno et vernali, vulgatissimus. 



T. dark piccous-black, slightly shining. Head and prothorax deeply and rugosely punctm-ed ; the 

 latter channelled, rather wide anteriorly, and with the extreme lateral edges dull testaceous. 

 Elytra somewhat short, expanded behind the middle, regularly and finely striated, the strise 

 minutely and uniformly punctiu-ed, the interstices also punctured ; with the lateral margin, and 

 a longitudinal vitta anteriorly and posteriorly (especially the former) confluent with it, broadly 

 testaceous, — lea\ing a wide band down the suture, constricted at the apex, and a narrow lateral 

 postmedial stria, abbreviated at both ends, of the same colour as the head and prothorax, viz. 

 piceous-black. Legs, palpi and antenna testaceous. 



The Madeiran specimens of this insect differ from Spanish and Algerian ones, in 

 my collection, in bciug slightly shorter, in having their head and the disk of theu' 

 prothorax somewhat darker, and in theu* elytral striae being less deeply impressed. 

 In all other respects they agree sufiiciently well with the ordinary Eui-opean type. 

 The T. lineatus is a species more especially peculiar to Mediterranean latitudes, 

 being foimd in the south of France, Italy, Sicily, and on the coast of Earbary. 

 Dejean, however, mentions that it has been also taken in the south of Russia. 

 From the T. suturalls it differs in its rather smaller size, more darkly painted 

 surface, in its wider prothorax (which, -odth the head, is more rugosely pimctvu-ed 

 and less polished), and by its elytral striae being more decidedly pimctate than is 

 the case in that species. Its ehi;ra, moreover, when A-iewed l)eneath the microscope, 

 appear uniformly and finely reticulose, — a sculptvu'c \vhich is scarcely perceptible 

 in the T. suiumlis, except imder a far liigher magnifying power. It is an exceed- 

 ingly common insect, dm-iug the autumnal, Avintcr, and early spring months, 

 tlu-oughout the movmtamous districts of Madeii-a, occurring for the most part 

 beneath stones in open grassy spots towards the highest peaks. On the lofty 

 uplands between the Pico dos Arieros and the Pico da Lagoa, as also on the Paul 

 da Serra, and on the precipitous slopes at the edges of the Ciu'ral das Frcu'as, it is 



