INSECTA MADERENSIA. 201 



elytrorum punctato-striatorum maculis parvis fasciisque variis interruptis, antennarum basi pedi- 

 busque rufo-testaceis. 

 Long. Corp. lin. mas, ly-l|^ : fcem. l|-2. 



Habitat per partem Maderae sylvaticam, inter 2000' et 4000' s. m., sub cortice arborum laxo non in- 

 frequens : specimen unicum etiam in horto Loweano prope Funchal (vespere volitans) deprebensi, 

 — illic forsan e regione montana, arboratoribus casu deportatum. 



L. elliptical (or perhaps slightly more acuminated behind than before), black or piceous-black, slightly 

 shining, and clothed with a short but robust pubescence. Head and prot/ioi-ax deeply punc- 

 tured : the latter narrowed in front but wide behind, where it is of the same breadth as the elytra 

 and closely applied to them ; the posterior margin nearly straight (the basal angles not being 

 at all produced as in the typical Litargi) ; the edges, especially the lateral ones, more or less 

 broadly and distinctly rufo-testaceous ; with a deep fovea on either side of the hinder disk, which 

 does not however extend to the posterior margin. Elytra deeply punctate-striated, and with the 

 interstices minutely punctulated ; with the lateral margins and a quantity of detached patches 

 (which have rather the tendency to form aii interrupted anterior, and a somewhat less broken 

 postmedial, fascia) bright rufo-testaceous. AntenruE at base, and the legs testaceous ; the former 

 with their club (except the apical half of the terminal joint) darkly infuscated ; and the latter 

 with their hinder tibife sometimes a little dusky. 



A triily indigenous and distinct lAtargus, and by no means uncouunon through- 

 out the sylvan regions of Madeira between the limits of from 2000 to aboixt 4500 

 feet above the sea. I have rarely observed it below the former of those altitudes ; 

 although I once detected a single specimen even in the immediate vicinity of Fun- 

 chal (in the E-ev. E/. T. Lowe's garden at the Levada), attracted by the light of a 

 candle into an open window, after twUight : — that specimen however, I have but 

 little doubt was an accidental one, brought dovni perchance from the moimtains 

 through the agency of the wood-cutters, or by some other means equally the result 

 of chance. It is found for the most part beneath the loose bark of trees, — under 

 which circumstances I have taken it abundantly diu'ing the summer months in 

 the districts of the Ribeiro Frio and the Panal ; as also, on the 18th of February 

 1819, in the Boa Ventura : and in July 1850 it was extremely plentiful at the 

 Lombo dos Pecegueiros, In point of size, the males are a trifle smaller than the 

 females; but, as regards rarity, both sexes would appear to be pretty evenly 

 distributed, since out of forty-six specimens fi-om which the above description has 

 been compiled, twenty-five are males and twenty-one females. Although its 

 habits are typically subcortical, it may be occasionally extracted from the very 

 interior of soft decomposed wood, — a mode of life which would seem to be espe- 

 ciaUy denoted in insects of an elliptical form ; and which is carried to its maximum 

 in such genera as Flceosoma and Cerylou, in which the unangalar and boat-shaped 

 bodies, so eminently adapted for forcing, rather than gnaicing theu- way (like the, 

 more cylindrical, Xyloplmgi) through a spongy, or porous medium, is still further 

 qualified by the excessive smoothness of their surface, which off'ers, consequently, 

 no resistance to their progress. 



2d 



