114 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



the normal states are so clearly expressed that I cannot regard these occasional 

 links as more than exceptional varieties from either side, and Avhich Avould fall as 

 unmistakeahly into their proper spheres as any of the remainder, were we better 

 able to grasp their exact characteristics, and to appreciate small shades of differ- 

 ence which are not the less real because obscure. Nor must we forget that in our 

 ignorance of even the nature of " species," so called, we may sometimes err in 

 attempting to define too rigidly the boimdaries of theii- attributes ; for, whilst, as 

 a matter of com-se, we must unquestionably assume them to be absolutely micon- 

 nected (that is to say, to have descended from common parents, — each of their 

 pecidiar kind), yet it is difficult to assert positively that creatures which in out- 

 ward points are thus intimately allied are of necessity so opposite in their endow- 

 ments that they may not now and then intermix, and produce those very aberra- 

 tions (all)eit perhaps not able, themselves, to perpetuate their race) which we are 

 apt to lay hold of, even when occm-riug thus sparingly, to destroy the specific 

 claims of the insects which have accidentally given them bii-th. And I shoidd 

 frequently, therefore, be inclined to look upon such-like media as lapsus natures 

 rather than as connective, — at any rate where they are only of rare exiwrience and 

 exist between forms the limits of wliich are other^-ise clear and unambiguous. 

 With these few remarks, which I have somewhat prolonged, as likely to apply in 

 instances besides the present one, it will be sufficient to add that the O. bicolor 

 (which, if my identification of it be correct, would appear to attain a rather larger 

 size in Madeira than the ordinary type) may be distinguished, for the most part, 

 from the following species, not merely by its superior bidk, but by its less poste- 

 riorly-aciuninated outline, l)y its usually just perceptibly darker and less brassy 

 hue, and by its legs and antenna? being, almost invariably, both of a more diluted 

 testaceous tinge and (proportionably) a trifle longer. It is an abundant insect, 

 diu'ing the spring and smnmer months, in certain parts of Madeira, at rather low 

 and intermediate elevations. In May of 18i9, wliUst encamped in the Eibeii-o de 

 Santa Luzia with the Rev. 11. T. Lowe, I captiu-cd it in the utmost profusion from 

 amonsrst the loni? cjrass and flowers immediatelv outside my tent, — and in com- 

 pany with the O. Uquidus, which thus, at all events, cannot be a local variety of it. 



91. Olibnis Hquidus. 



O. obovatus postice paulo magis acuminatus, subjeuesccnti-uigropiceus uitidissinius, clytris sub- 

 striatis, apicem versus diluto-rufescentibus, singuli striis duabus suturam versus distinctioribus, 

 antennis pedibusque testaceis, illis breviusculis. 



Long. Corp. lin. -f^-l^. 



Plialacnis ovaiiis, llott'iii. in mm. 



Olibrus Uquidus, Erich. Nat. der Ins. Deutsch. iii. 117 (1848). 



Habitat Maderam, in locis similibus ac 0. bicolor, uua cum illo degens. 



