INSECTA MADERENSIA. 119 



§ I. Labrum transversum, antice leviter emarginatum : ^alpi articulo ultimo subammiinato : mentum antice 

 plus minusve productum, (Nitidula et Omosita, Ericli^. Habitant prsecipue in cadaveribus. 



96. Nitidula flexuosa. 



N. lato-oblonga depressa subfusco-nigra, protborace antice vix emarginato, lateribus testaceis ciliatis, 

 el3ftris macula media communi abbreviata necnon plaga magna (postice dentat^) ad humeruni 

 singuli sita pallido-testaceis ornatis, antennarum basi pedibusque testaceis. 



Long. Corp. lin. li-2|. 



Nitidula flexuosa, Oliv. Ent. ii. 12. 7 (1790). 



, Fab. Ent. Sysf. i. 258 (1792). 



, Heer, Fna Col. Relv. 397 (1841). 



• , Erich. Nat. der Ins. Beutseh. iii. 159 (1818). 



Habitat in cadaveribus Portus Sancti, tempore biberno et vernali non infrequens. 



N. broad and oblong, depressed, dull brownisb- or piceous-black, most minutely punctulated, and 

 pubescent. Prothorax very slightly emarginated, or arcuated, in front ; large and wide, rounded 

 at the sides, and broadest a little behind the middle ; the lateral edges testaceous, and fringed 

 with a fine silken pubescence. Elytra with a transverse abbreviated central patch, common to 

 both, and a large flexuose (posteriorly ragged) portion at the shoulder of each (usually enclosing 

 a minute isolated one within its concavity) pale testaceous. Antenna at base and the legs testa- 

 ceous ; the former with their club infuscate. 



Owing probably to its habits, which, would favour its dissemination over the 

 civilized countries of the world, the present large and beautiful Nitidula is an 

 insect of very wide geographical range. It occurs (though scarcely in such 

 abundance as some of the allied species) thi-oughout the greater portion of Eiu-oj^e 

 and the north of Africa ; and it has been even received from Syria, and other parts 

 of Asia. Hitherto I have not observed it in Madeira proper, but only in the 

 island of Porto Santo, where, during December of 1848, I captui'ed it in great 

 profusion, adliering to the dried skeleton of a goat, on the edges of the Campo 

 de Baxo, to the westward of the Cidade. 



97. Nitidula 4-pustiilata. 



N. angusto-suboblonga fusco-nigra, prothorace convexo antice vix emarginato, lateribus ciliatis, elytro 

 singulo maculis duabus, una sc. subrotundata longe intra humerum sita necnon altera majore 

 oblonga obliqua postmedia, testaceis ornato, antennarum basi pedibusque ferrugineis. 



Long. corp. lin. 1-1^. 



Nitidula i-pustulata, Fab. Ent. Sgsf. i. 255 (1792). 



, ULig. Mag. fur Ins. i. 88 (1801). 



■ , Heer, Fna Col. Relv. 401 (1841). 



, Erich. Nat. der Ins. Deufsch. iii. 160 (1848). 



Habitat jNIaderam, et borealem et australem, tempore hiberno et vernali, passim, — etiam m hortis 

 Funchalensibus interdum abundans. 



