182 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



amongst the Cryptophagidce, thus additionally strengthening the bond of union 

 between that family and the present one, — which I cannot but believe are most 

 intimately allied, even though placed by many recent naturalists far asunder. 

 And in fact I should be even, further, inclined to suspect that, taking into account 

 both its tarsi and oral organs, there is perhajis no form more evidently suggestive 

 of the two (whilst belonging essentially to one of them) than JZoIojHiratneciis. In 

 theu" modes of life the Soloparameci somewhat recede fi'om the Corticarice and 

 Lathridii, being found more especially, like certain of the Cryptophagidce, in 

 the vicinity of warehouses and dwellings, where they are frequently introduced 

 with different kinds of stores (though it may be that they should be rather re- 

 garded as inhabiting the crevices of the boxes in which the stores are contained 

 than the stores themselves) : and in England they have often been received, in a 

 living state, amongst insects and skins, from India and China. They are not 

 however solely attached to such positions, since one or two of the species occur 

 beneath stones in hot exposed localities, far removed fi'om any traces of habita- 

 tions, — as is the case in many parts of the south of Europe, and \^■ith the Madeiran 

 representative of the genus. It is only in rare instances that they ajipear to 

 subsist, like the tj^ical Lathridiadce, under the bark of trees. 



145. Holoparamecus niger. 

 H. subelliptico-oblongus angustus ferrugineus politus et subtilissime punctulatus, prothorace postice 



constricto et injequaliter transverso-signato, elytro singulo stria suturali subflexuosa profunda 



impresso, antenais pedibusque pallido-testaceis. 

 Long. Corp. lin. |. 



Cdlyptohivm nigrum, Chevrier, in litt. 



, Aube, Ann. dc la Soc. Ent. Je France (2i*'"« serio) i. 246 (1843). 



Habitat in locis inforioribus Madcrre ct Portus Sancti, vol aprico bumi inter graminum radices cur- 

 sitans vel sub seoriis lapidibusque latens, ab autumuo usque ad ver novum vulgatissimus : 

 " Praya Formoza, sub lapidibus/' teste Dom. Heer. 



H. minute, narrow and elongated, and somewhat elliptical-oblong (the widest part being, although 

 the sides are not continuous, a little behind the base of the elytra), varying from ferruginous 

 into a reddish-chestnut hue, — the cf)lour being generally of a rather unequal intensity, which 

 causes the surface to seem somewhat transparent, or pellucid ; exceedingly shining, and appearing 

 beneath the microscope to be most minutely and distantly punctidated, and even perceptibly 

 pubescent. Head long and convex, scarcely so broad as the anterior part of the prothorax, 

 which is rounded at the sides, constricted behind, and with its posterior region broadly, trans- 

 versely, and >nievcnly impressed, — the impressed band continuing to the hinder angles (which 

 are almost right angles, and have their extreme lateral edge a little thickened, and produced 

 backwards, in the form of an elevated and straight longitudinal ridge, to about a third of the 

 distance towards the anterior margin), and being interrupted in the centre by a large and 

 slightly raised portion, which, from being cloven by a medial line, has somewhat the appearance 

 of two rounded tubercles in front of (but remote from) the scutellum. Elytra considerably 



