124 INSECTA MADERENSIA, 



is the case with any of the following species, exposing the pygidiura, which is usuallv somewhat 

 acuminated. AnienruB and leys dull brownish- or picco-fciTuginous : the former with their base 

 a little paler: the latter with their fore-tibia shghtly dilated towards the apex, and with the outer 

 edge very powerfully serrated, — ha\ing usually about nine large teeth (diminishing in size), and 

 about six more (very minute ones) which extend to the extreme base. 

 Var. /3. with a slightly bluish tinge, and ■nnth the pubescence on the upper surface cinereous 

 (instead of olivaceous) : the prothorax rather larger and broader than in the ordinary type ; and 

 the legs and antenrue somewhat paler. 



A large and distinct 3Ieligethes, and one wliich may be readily known from the 

 rest of the genus here described, not only by its anteriorly and posteriorly sub- 

 acuminated outline, and by its more abbreviated elytra, but likemse by the dense 

 olivaceous, or almost golden pubescence wdth Avhich its uj)per sui'face is clothed, 

 and by the structure of its fore-tibiae, wliich are more powerfully serrated than in 

 any of the other species, and have nine exceedingly robust (though unequal) teeth 

 on the apical half of their outer edge, and about six or seven extremely minute 

 ones extending to its base. I have as yet only detected it on the flowers and 

 foliage of the Isoplexis Sceptriim, where, during the summer months, it would 

 appear to l)e far from uncommon at intermediate and lofty altitudes in the momi- 

 tains of Madeira, — although, from the precipitous and almost inaccessible nature 

 of the rocks on which that magnificent plant prmcipally fioiu'ishes, it is usually a 

 somewhat difficult insect to obtain. On the abrupt declivities at the Feijaa de 

 C6rte, and in the remote adjoining ravine of the Ribeu-o da Quebrada, I took it in 

 great a])undance, at the Ijeguining of August 1850. Of the var. /3. but a single 

 specimen has liitherto come beneath my observation, — captiu'ed, by myself, at the 

 extreme head of the Ribeiro de Joao Delgada during July of the same year. 



102. MeUgethes tristis. 



M. oblongus subconvexus niger cinereo-pubescens, autennarum basi vix conspicue pallidiore, tibiis 



anticis sublinearibus, extus pectinato-serratis. 

 Long. Corp. lin. 1-1^. 



Nitidula tristis, Schupp. in litt. 



Meligethes tristis, Sturm, Deutsch. Fna, xvi. 40. t. 309. f. a. A, h (1845). 



, Erich. Nat. der Ins. Betitsch. iii. 190 (1848). 



, Eodt. Fna Aiistr. 1G9 (184.9). 



Habitat insulas iladercnses, tempore vernali in floribus ubique vulgaris : in Portu Sancto necuon in 

 ins. Descrta; Grandis abundat : " Funchal in rosis," teste Dom. Heer. 



M. ahnost oblong, rather narrower and convexer than the last species, black, finely and closely punc- 

 tulated, and densely clothed with a delicate cinereous pubescence, — which has sometimes a 

 slightly yellowish tinge. Prothorax subquadratc. Antemue at base only just perceptibly paler 

 than the rest of the surface. The legs with their fore-tibite comparatively linear, being less 

 dilated, or extemally rounded, towards the apex than is the case in any of the other species, and 



