INSECTA MADERENSIA. 125 



with the outer edge powerfully serrated, — haWng usually six large teeth (of unequal sizes), and 

 about five more (very minute ones) which extend nearly to, although gradually diminishing at, 

 the base. 



The present Mellgethes may be at once known from the other species with 

 which we are here concerned by its smaller size and ahnost entirely black hue (the 

 basal portion of its antennse being alone just perceptibly paler than the rest of the 

 surface), as well as by the structure of its comparatively linear fore-tibise, — which 

 have six very powerful teeth along the apical half of theu- outer edge, and about 

 five or six other, very minute, ones gradually diminishing towards their' base. 

 The relative proportions of the teeth are not precisely the same as those which are 

 figured in Sturm's Deutschlands Fauna, but tyjncal specimens of the M. tristis 

 which I have received from Berlin agree sufl&ciently well with the Madeiran 

 insect as to leave but little doubt, in my ot\ti mind, that the two are specifically 

 coincident. It is extremely abimdant throughout most of the islands of the group, 

 occurring in flowers during the sj)ring and early summer months. In the imme- 

 diate vicinity of Punchal, especially towards the upper extremity of the Ribeiro de 

 Santa Luzia, I have at times observed it in the greatest profusion : and in Porto 

 Santo and on the Dezerta Grande it is scarcely less common. 



103. Meligethes picipes. 

 M. subrotundato-oblongus convexus niger cinereo-pubescens, antennis pedibusque anticis fusco- 



picescentibus, posterioribus fere nigris, tibiis anticis ante medium dilatatis, extus subtiliter 



serratis. 

 Long. corp. lin. 1^. 



Meligethes picipes, Sturm, Deutsch. Fna, xvi. 47. t. 310. f. a, A, b (1845). 



, Erich. Nat. der Ins. Deutsch. iii. 199 (1848). 



, E^dt. Fna Austr. 170 (1849). 



Habitat in floribus Maderse, una cum M. t)istl degens, vulgatissimus. 



M. roundish-oblong, being a little broader and convexer (and, on the average, a trifle larger) than the 

 M. tristis, deep black, finely and closely punctulated, and clothed (more or less) with a delicate 

 cinereous pubescence. Prothorax just perceptibly more transverse than that of the last species. 

 Antenna and the two fore-legs dark brownish-ferruginous, or picescent ; the four hinder legs 

 being always of a darker tinge, and generally nearly black : the fore-tibia considerably dilated a 

 little before the middle, and with the outer edge very finely sen-ated along its entire length, — the 

 teeth which are situated on the broadest portion being slightly larger than the rest. 



Like the last, a common European Meligethes. It may be kno^\Ti from the 

 other Madeiran species by its colom- being almost entu'ely black A\ith the excep- 

 tion of its front-legs and antennae, which (although sometimes obscui-ely so) are 

 always paler than the two hinder pair. It is, at first sight, very closely allied to 



