INSECTA MADERENSIA. 207 



lobo externa ovato pubescenti : interno angustiore, intus ciliato. Palpi maxillares articulo vdtimo 

 fusifoi-mi apice acuminato. Mentum ad basin, ad apicem, necnon ad latera emarginatum, angulis 

 omnibus acutis. Ligula brevis, apicem versus angustata bifida. Pedes breves robustissimi, 

 omnino retractiles (i. e., insecto quieto, corpori arete applicati) : tibiis latis compressis : tarsis 

 longiusculis, articulis quatuor baseos longitudine leviter decrescentibus. 



The genus Sy)icalypta, containing the minims of the ByrrMdm, may be known 

 by the minute, hispid bodies of the insects which compose it, and by the abrupt 

 triarticulated club of their antennae. It is a group purely European, and of small 

 extent, embracing (hitherto) four or five species only, which seem to be nowhere 

 abundant. In Madeira it is represented by three closely allied forms, which 

 recede from the more northern types in being invariably apterous. They reside 

 for the most part beneath stones on the grassy mountain-slopes of a high eleva- 

 tion, and are, apjoarently, somewhat rare. 



163. Syncalypta capitata, Woll. 



S. ovata nigra setis rigidis adspersa, prothorace erebre punctate, elytris punctato-striatis, pedibus 



rufo-piceis, antennarum ferrugineai-um clava testace^ magna subglobosa. 

 Long. Corp. lin. 1^. 



Habitat sub lapidibus iu montibus Maderoe, rarissima; — prope summum montem Pico dos Ai-ieros 

 dictum (circa 5500' s. m.) autumno a.d. 1848 a meipso reperta. 



S. ovate (being rather acuminated behind), slightly shining, black, more or less besprinkled with a 

 decumbent cinereous pubescence, and with erect rigid bristles intermixed. Head and prothorax 

 vei-y obscurely picescent, and closely punctulated. Elytra punctate-striated, but more lightly 

 so than in either of the following species. Legs rufo-piceous. Antenna ferruginous ; with their 

 club testaceous, large and subglobose. 



Known from the following two by its superior size, less deeply striated elytra, 

 and by the large, abrupt and rounded club of its antennae. It is apparently 

 extremely rare, the only specimen which I have seen having been captiu'ed by 

 myseK, fi-om beneath a stone, in the lofty iipland region immediately below the 

 summit of the Pico dos Arieros (about 5500 feet above the sea), during the 

 autmBn of 1848. 



164. Syncalypta ovuliformis, Woll. 



S. ovata nigra setis rigidis adspersa, prothorace erebre punctate, elytris profunde striato-punetatis, 



pedibus rufo-piceis, antennarum ferruginearum clava testacea ovata. 

 Long. Corp. lin. li. 



Habitat in iisdem locis ac prfecedens, sed ilia paulo frequentior. 



S. rather smaller than the S. capitata, and with the bristles perhaps not quite so dense, or so robust. 



