INSECTA MADERENSIA. 21 



apparent in them all, and in about two-thircls of the entire number ■\vliieh came 

 beneath my notice, it was literally immense. This character is so remarkable, that 

 we should naturally have expected, even a priori, that others would be found, in 

 conjunction with it, of sufficient importance to establish the lAcimis Latreillei of 

 Laporte as a distinct genus. 



15. Eurygnathus Latreillei. (Tab. I. fig. l et 3.) 



E. ater nitidus, prothorace subquadrato angulis posticis punctatis, elytris ovatis striatis, striis vix 

 punctatis, antennarum apice pedibusque piceis. 

 Fmm. capite plerumque latiore magno. 

 Long. Corp. lin. 9i-12. 



Var. /3. opacus, prothorace latiore lateribus valde recurvis, angulis posticis vix punctatis, elytris 

 parallelo-ovatis, punctato-striatis. (Ins. Deserta Grandis.) 

 Long. Corp. lin. 11-13. 



Licinus Latreillei, Laporte, Utud. Ent. i. 83 (1834). 



Habitat sub lapidibus in Portu Sancto, tempore hiberno et vernali, vulgaris : varietatem /3. in insula 

 Desertse Grandis soli, nieuse Januario a.d. 1849, inveni. 



C deep black, shining. Eyes small, remote from the prothorax, wbicb is subquadrate, and a little 

 narrowed behind, with the lateral edges (especiaUy posteriorly) recurved upwards ; with a longitu- 

 dinal channel down the disk, and with a few large, shallow, scattered punctures towards the basal 

 angles. Elytra deeply striated, the strioe being scarcely perceptibly punctate. Antenna (the basal 

 portions of the first and second joints excepted), palpi, a depressed segmental space behind the 

 labrum, and the feet, more or less brown or piceous. 

 Vai-. /3. larger and more parallel, opake ; the prothorax rather wider, especially in front, with its 

 edges more broadly recurved and its hinder angles less distinctly punctured ; whilst the elytral 

 striae are more perceptibly punctate. (The state peculiar to the Dezerta Grande.) 



A common insect beneath stones in Porto Santo, dui-ing the winter and early 

 spring months. I have usually found it in greater profusion towards the eastern 

 extremity of the island than in any other position, especially on the grassy slopes 

 of the Pico de Baxo (the high conical hiU, on the coast, to the eastward of the 

 Cidade), and in the dry, sandy, fossUiferous district immediately below it, to the 

 north, knowTi as the Zimbral d'Areia, — at the mouth of the Kibeii'o de Serra de 

 Fora. On the open plain of the Campo de Baxo, which extends across the island 

 to the westward of the iovna., it UkcAvise occvirs, though more sparingly : whilst on 

 the large adjacent limestone rock of the Ilheo de Baxo, where I first discovered it, 

 it is tolerably abuudant. The specimens on the Dezerta Grande assume a distiact 

 variety, — the insect ha-ving apparently become modified by long isolation on that 

 island, where it not only attains a much larger size than in Porto Santo, but is 

 invariably also more parallel and opake, has the sides of its prothorax more 



