170 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



The little genus Ephistemns* {=Ps>/cJiidi>()n, Heer, Fiia Col. Helc. a.d. 1841) 

 may be readily kno\\Ti by the basally-subapproximated antennse, and by the very 

 incrassated second, and subaciciilated ultimate joints of both the labial and maxil- 

 lary palpi of the few minute and subglobose insects which compose it. Of the 

 two representatives wliich I have hitherto detected in Madeira one only is t\^ical, 

 — the other, which is apparently peculiar to the island, being aberrant in so many 

 j)oints of its structm-e as well nigh to merit isolation from the normal members of 

 the group. Thus, in addition to the non-development of its wings (a local pecu- 

 liarity however which seems to be almost a geographical one, since it obtains 

 throughout the larger portion of the Coleoptera mth which we have here to do), 

 its mandibles have a minute tooth immediately within theii* apex (which I do not 

 ol)serve in any other Ejihistemiis which I have dissected), wliilst its antennse, 

 which (with the legs) are very much longer than in the ordinary species, have 

 their articulations, from the fourth to the eighth (inclusive), instead of being 

 al)breviated and subequal, alternately long and sliort. The Ejthistemi occur prin- 

 cipally amongst rank herbage beneath trees, or else luider decaying vegetable 

 substances on the damp grou.nd, — theii" apically-subaciculated palpi moreover 

 seeming to indicate a partiality for moist spots. 



§ 1. Alee amplee : antenncB pedesquc breves ; iUa articulis quarto ad octavum brevibus subglobosis cpqualibus ; 



mandibulw edentatm. (Epliistemi typici.) 



142. EpMstemus dimidiatus. 

 E. brevis niger Isevis nitidissiinus et fere impunctatus, dytris ad apicem plus minusvc rufo-pices- 



centibus, antennis pedibusque testaceis. 

 Loug. Corp. lin. j. 



Plialacrvs dimidiatus, Shirm, Deutsch. Fiia, ii. 85. tab. 32. fig. D (1807). 

 EpMstemus confnis, Stepli. 111. Brit. Ent. ii. 169. pi. xv. fig. 2 (1829). 

 Psychidium ghbulum, Heer, Fna Col. Helv. i. 433 (1841). 

 Epistemus dimidiatus, Sturm, Deutsch. Fna, xnii. S3, tab. 343. fig. A (1846). 

 , Erich. Nat. der Ins. Deutsch. iii. 401 (1848). 



Habitat ]\Iaderain, et borealem et australcm, prjesertim in cultis et graminosis unibrosis huniidiusculis 

 infra 2000' s. m., liiiic inde nou infrequens : in vinctis prope Funchal intcrdum oecurrit, nccaon 

 in horto Loweano ad Levada etiam in fungis emortuis parce observavi. 



E. short-ovate, acute before and behind, exceedingly convex and polished, black with more or less of 

 a pieeous tinge, almost impunctate (a few most minute and distant punctures being only just 



* The title of the present group was altered by Eriehsou into Epi.<<temus, — though it is diifieult to 

 understand why, since neither the laws of nomenclature required the change, nor have the numerous 

 names similarly compounded ever been objected to : whilst the practical result of a proceeding thus 

 arbitrar\- is to appropriate as his own a genus which has been .already fidly described by another. I have 

 consequently restored its original orthography, and assigned it to its proper author. 



