152 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



The insect wliich represents Lyctm in !Madeii"a constitutes the genus Xylotrogiis 

 of Stephens, which was established in. 1830 to receive the identical species now 

 under consideration, which appears to be liable to importation throughout the 

 civilized world, and in which the prothorax is more constricted behind, and \vith 

 its anterior angles more developed and produced, than is the case with the acknow- 

 ledged tj^ie. IMi'. Stephens's characters being merely external ones, it would have 

 Ijccn difficult mthout dissection to have offered an opinion as to theii- real value, 

 or whether they were accompanied by corresponding differences of positive struc- 

 tiu'c. In addition however to the Madeiran examples, I have lately received fi-om 

 Mr. Westwood (by whom the specimen wMch is figured was dissected) a true 

 X. brtmneus (captured, many years ago, at Paris by M. Che\Tolat, — who, beheving 

 it to be im described, proposed for it the name of Jj. Gli/ci/rrJiizce), and have conse- 

 quently been enabled to examine minutely its oral organs and other details. After 

 comparing them carefully with those of the i. cancdiculatKs, I cannot perceive 

 any decided distinctions whatsoever between the two, — the slightly more elongated 

 and apically-acuminated palpi of the X. hrunneus, in conjimction with its rather 

 less robust antennae, being the sole points, unless I am much mistaken, in which 

 (apart from the shape of its prothorax) it recedes from the normal state ; — and it 

 is clearly impossible to regard such trivial modifications as of more than specific 

 importance. In defining its palpi as " very short," and its prothoracic margins as 

 "not crenatcd" (the main features selected in order to separate it from Lyctus), 

 Mr. Stephens was unquestionably in error, since its palpi are distinctly longer 

 than those of the L. canaliculutus, whilst the edges of its prothorax are certainly 

 crenulated, — albeit more obscvu'cly so than in the common generic type. So com- 

 pletely indeed are the structvu'al minutiae of the L. canalicidatus possessed by the 

 X. brmmeus that it is almost needless to enumerate them : suffice it therefore to 

 obsene that, in the proportions of theii- antennae, in their bUobed upper Hps, 

 bidentate mandibles, as also in theu* maxiUae, semicii'cular menta, pecviliar, apicaUy- 

 acumiuatcd ligula?, in theu' powerful and ciuiously armed anterior tibite, and in 

 the constricted basal joint of theii- quadiiarticulate feet, the tAvo insects are 

 actually identical. 



124. Lyctus bnmneus. (Tab. IV. fig. .3.) 



Ij. angustus cylindricus pubescens bnmneus, capite prothoiaceque crebre punctatis, hoc postice leviter 

 angustato angulis anticis productis obtusis, elytris ferrugineis obsolete substriato-pvinctatis (striis 

 suturam versus evanescentibus), interstitiis minutissime punctulatis. 



Long. Corp. lin. 1^— 2i. 



Lyctus parasiticus, Steph. Syst. Cat. of Brit. Ins. 94 (1829). 

 Xiilotrogus hninnciis, Steph. 777. Brif. Ent. iii. 116 (1830). 

 Lyctus Colydioides ? Dej. Cat. (edit. 3) 338 (1837). 

 OlycyrrhiziB, Chev. in Dej. Cat. (edit. 3) 338 (1837). 



Habitat Maderam, circa oppida et vicos, vcl etiam iu urbe ipsa Funcbaleusi, hinc inde, rarior : in 



