INSECTA MADERENSIA. 47 



The discovery of this very distinct and beautiful Omaseus is due to my friend 

 Professor Heer of Zurich, who, during his residence in IMadeii'a in the winter of 

 1850-51, captiu'ed several specimens from beneatli stones on the Cabo Gerajao, or 

 Brazen Head; in Avhich locality it has been subsequently taken by M. E-ovisset. 

 It is one of the few Coleopterous insects which appear to have escaped my obser- 

 vation during my repeated researches in these islands. It may be at once distin- 

 guished from the O. nigerrimus by its slenderer, more shining and depressed body, 

 by its much smaller head and prothorax (the latter of which is more subcordate, 

 much more narrowly margined ; and has moreover two fovese on either side at its 

 base, and its extreme hinder angles produced into a minute tooth), by its shorter 

 and more delicate legs, and by its elytra having no appearance whatsoever of im- 

 pressed foveas on their disks, and thek striae very distinctly punctm"ed. 



Genus 16. AMARA. 



Bonelli, Ohservat. Ent. i. (1809). 



Corpus minusculum, plus minusve ovale : prothorace saepiiis subquadrato : alls amplis. Antennce 

 filiformes, capitis prothoracisque longitudine, articulo primo sequentibus robustiore, secundo 

 brevi. Lahrum quadratum, antice leviter emarginatum et setis paucis longissimis instructum. 

 Mandibula breves validse, intus basi denticulatse. Maxilla bilobae : lobo externa palpiformi bi- 

 articulato : interno acuto iucurvo, apice uncinato, intus valde ciliato. Pulpn filiformes, articulo 

 ultimo fusLformi-subtruncato. Mentuni transversum, antice profuude emarginatum et dente 

 medio bifido (rarius integro) instructum. Ligula membranacea, apice truncata pilisque duobus 

 longis aucta ; paraglossis earn baud superantibus. Pedes validiusculi : tarsis aiiticis in maribus 

 articulis primo, secundo et tertio dilatatis : uiiguiculis simplicibus. 



The Amarce, so abundant in our own country and throughout the whole of 

 Europe, are too famUiar to every eye to requii-e comment. Then* sinning brassy 

 surfaces and more or less oval forms, seen so constantly darting across oiu- path- 

 ways, in fields and by the road-sides, in the hot sunshme, are associated with our 

 earliest recollections, and can have scarcely failed to have attracted the attention of 

 the most unobservant. In the details of tlieh' mouth they recede but slightly from 

 the allied genera ; but their external aspect is fortunately so weU defined as to 

 render us independent of structm*al characters even in our generic definition of 

 them. I have hitherto detected but two species in the Madeii'a Islands, one of 

 which however would appear to be peculiar to the group. 



34. Amara triviaUs. 

 A. ovalis fenea, prothorace antice angustato angulis posticis acutis, basi impunctato utrinque foveolato, 

 elytris striatis, antennarum basi rufo-ferruginea, tiljiis rufo-piceis. 

 Var. /3. caerulescenti-, vel viridescenti-micans, nitida. 

 Long. Corp. lin. 3-3i. 



