INSECTA MADERENSIA. 25 



pressions. Antenna and legs shorter and rather more robust than those of the Z. Schaumii ; 

 the former fuscous ; the latter piceous, with the tarsi rufo-fuscous. 



An exceedingly well-marked species, intermediate, both in size and sciili^ture, 

 between the Z. Scliaumii and the Z. pellncklus, though with abundant distinctive 

 characters of its own. Its dark, black hue (its extreme margins, its mouth, and its 

 tarsi being alone. somewhat fuscescent), added to its short, laterally-rounded pro- 

 thorax (which is widest about the middle), and its lightly impressed, scarcely 

 interrupted elytral striae, will serve prinid facie to separate it from the rest of the 

 genus; whilst from the Z. Schaumii in particular its shorter legs and antennae, 

 and its less depressed form will still fui'ther tend to remove it. It occm's exclu- 

 sively, so far as I have hitherto observed, on the Dezerta Grande, where I captured 

 it m tolerable abundance, in company with Calatlms complanatus, during January 

 1849, from beneath stones at the head of the great northern valley. They are 

 extremely active, and apparently very voracious (as indeed their prominent, thickly 

 ciliated mandibles would seem to indicate), attacking indiscriminately everytliing 

 with which they may chance to be enclosed, not even sparing theii' own kind. I 

 possess a remarkable example of a hybrid between the Z. Desertce and the C. com- 

 planatus, in which one of the elytra is that of an ordinary Calatlms, whilst the other 

 is much shorter and precisely that of the former insect : the claws moreover are 

 very imperfectly formed, and some of them are not developed at all. It was'taken 

 under a stone, in company with a profusion of specimens of the two species in 

 question, of which there can be no doubt but that it is the common progeny. 



18. Zargus pellucidus, Woll. (Tab. I. fig. 6.) 



Z. nigro-piceus, supra luteo-infuscatns nitidus subdepressus, prothorace parvo angusto subquadrato 

 marginibus pallidis, elytris diluto-infuscatis striatis, lateribus, antennis pedibusque pallidis. 

 Var. (3. vis major et obscurior (ins. Deserta Grandis). 

 Long. corp. lin. Z\-'i^. 



Habitat sub lapidibus IMaderse, in eonvallibus umbrosis declivibusque humidiusculis, tempore hiberno 

 et vernali, rarissimus : var. /3. in ins. Deserta Grandi et tantum illic occurrit, qua mense Januario 

 A.D. 1849 duo specimina in rupium fissuris apricarum detexi. 



Z. beneath dark piceous-black ; above yellowish-brown, though of an unequal or irregular intensity 

 in different parts, which gives it a diluted or somewhat transparent appearance ; shining, and 

 about as much depressed as the last species. Mouth prominent, and pale testaceous. Prothorax 

 very small, narrow and subquadrate, a little wider before than behind, with very slight indications 

 of wrinkles, and with a deep dorsal channel ; the margins broadly and distinctly pale, leaving a 

 square patch on the disk alone dark. Elytra ovate, a little more depressed than in the Z. Deserta, 

 regularly and rather deeply striated, — the striaj having apparently no tendency to be interrupted ; 

 with two small depressions on the disk of each, and occasionally one or two extra, irregular ones, 

 which however appear to be accidental rather than typical ; the lateral margins (particularly the 



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