INSECTA MADERENSIA. 197 



the latter certainly exists, although in a very diminutive, or rutUmentary state. 

 As regards the feet, the truth is that the fii'st two joints are so exactly connected 

 mter se, and are so precisely of the same breadth throughout, that even the micro- 

 scope does not show then* line of demarcation without some difficulty ; biit that it 

 is to be perceived, when closely looked for, there cannot be the remotest doubt. 

 Whilst it inust be admitted, therefore, that the points of deviation from Mycetcea 

 are considerably reduced from what they were originally supposed to lie, yet there 

 stUl remain many distinctive modifications in the minutiae of its oral organs 

 which, when combined with external ones, will go far, I uuagine, towards render- 

 ing its isolation desirable. Thus, for example, the enormously developed sub- 

 globose termiual joint of its labial palpi (which, with that of the antennae, is 

 obliquely truncated at its apex), added to its transverse, subemarginated upper lip, 

 the excessive minuteness of the inner lobe of its maxillae, and the diflPerent con- 

 struction of their palpi, are all of them features which recede from the parallel 

 ones of Mycetcea : whilst its ?f«margined pvothorax (the sides of which, however, 

 are obsoletely crenulated), and the total exemption of its elytral punctures from 

 longitudinal distribution, would still farther tend to remove it from that genus,^ — 

 to which in its general habits it manifestly approximates. 



157. Microchondrus domuiun. (Tab. IV. fig. 2.) 

 M. ovatus rufo-testaceus nitidus longe sed parce pubescens, prothorace transverso subtilissime et 

 pai-ce punctulato, ad latera minutissime subcrenulato, basi fovea valde profunda (extus siib- 

 costato-terminata) utrinque instructo, elytris vix distinctius punctulatis, singulo stria suturali 

 antice ilexuosa impresso, antenuis pedibusque paulo pallidioribus. 

 Long. Corp. lin. |— 1. 



Microchonirus domuiim, G-uerin, in lift. 



Habitat in domibus Funchalensibus, rarissimus, — a meipso Novembri mense a.d. 1847 primo detectus : 

 sed in Madera boreali, sub cortice arborum in castanetis Sanctse Annae, sestate a.d. 1850 paulo 

 copiosiorem obseiTavi. 



M. ovate, obtuse both before and behind, rufo-testaceous, shining (especially the prothorax, which is 

 brilliantly polished), and sparingly beset (more thickly so however towards the sides) with long 

 pile. Head and prothorax almost inipunctate (most minutely impressed and distant points being 

 only just distinguishable even beneath the microscope) : the latter broad, transverse, convex, and 

 widest a short distance in front of its extreme base; with the edges rounded and a little recurved 

 (and appearing beneath a high magnifying power to be most obscurely subcrenulatcd) ; and 

 deeply impressed on either side behind with a large fovea, which is abruptly terminated towards 

 the base of its outer limit by a slightly raised line, or costa (which however is apparent only 

 when the insect is viewed obliquely). Elytra broad at the base, and with the lateral margins 

 about the shoulders slightly and very narrowly recurved ; the punctures larger and rather more 

 evident than those of the head and prothorax, but with no tendency whatsoever to be disposed ni 

 rows; and with an impunctate stria on each alongside the suture, — and parallel to it, except in 



