118 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



di'icd figs I have observed it occasionally ia the greatest profusion. It is common 

 tlirougliout Em-ope and in Algeria, but was, originally, in all probability, a native 

 of a colder climate than the C. mutilatus, since the latter has not been able, ap- 

 parently, to establish itseK in northern Europe, whereas the present insect occou-s 

 in equal abimdance both in the north and the south. 



Genus 44. NITIDULA. 

 Fabricius, Syst. Ent. 77 (1775). 



Corpus minusculum, plus minusve depressum et laete coloratum : prothorace in discum subconvexo, ad 

 latera plerumquc complanato necnon ssepius subrecurvo : elytris apice truncatis, pj'gidium vix 

 tcgcntibus : alls amplis. Antenna bre\iusculffi, articulo primo magno crasso, secundo ad octavum 

 multo gracilioribus (tertio ssepe reliquis lougiore graciliore), reliquis capitulum maguum subsoli- 

 dum orbiculato-ovatum triarticulatum efficientibus. Lahrum antice ciliatum. Mandibula valida;, 

 apice bidentatffi. Maxilla lobo singula pubescenti instructse. Palpi filiformes. Mentum trans- 

 verso-subquadratum, antice vel leviter emarginatum vel productum. Ligula apice biloba, lobis 

 magnis pubescentibus. Pedes subcoutractiles : tibiis extus integris : tarsis articulo quarto minu- 

 tissimo, anticis articulis tribus saepius dilatatis. 



The Nitiditlce, subdivided by Erichson, as I camiot but believe, into too many 

 genera, may, apart from the distinctive characters of theii* oral organs (which will 

 be gathered from the above diagnosis), be usually recognised from theii- allies by 

 their comparatively depressed bodies, and by the more or less flattened edges of 

 their prothorax. In their economy they are midway between Carjiophilus and 

 MeUgethes, combining the ossiphagous, or almost omnivorous, propensities of the 

 former -ttdth the flower-infesting habits of the latter. And, since we have such 

 opposite modes of life indicated in the same genus, we find, as would natm-aUy be 

 cKpected, insects of intermediate tendencies likewise, — which are perhaps the 

 most numerous, and may be considered as constituting the normal members of the 

 group. Such species reside between chippings of wood or under the bark of trees, 

 feeding on decaying vegetable matter, more particularly in spots where recent 

 womids have caused the sap to exude and the bark to have become loose. Of 

 the fom" representatives however which I have hitherto detected in the ]Madeii'a 

 Islands, tkree belong to the ossiphagous, and one only to the strictly subcortical 

 division : and it is more than probalile indeed that the former may have been 

 accidentally imported from more northern latitudes, since they do not appear to 

 exist at aU in the uncultivated regions, but merely in the A-icinity of the to-mas, — 

 positions in which they would be the more easily naturalized, from the constant 

 supply of theii- proper food with which such localities must necessarily abound. 



