INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



227 



A. rather short, deep black, and shining : with the chjpeus (which is rather roughened, tubercled, 

 recui-ved at the edges, and truncated in front) completely dark. Prothorax ample, with large 

 and scattered punctures (which however are not so large as those of the A. Pedrosi, though 

 larger and much more numerous than those of the A. lividus), — especially towards the sides, 

 which have obscure indications of a rufescent patch (sometimes scarcely perceptible) at about the 

 centre of either lateral edge (the position occupied by the darker cloud which is more or less 

 apparent in the whole of the previous species). Ely Ira crenate-striated, with the interstices almost 

 impunctate ; and with their extreme apex sometimes a httle rufescent or piceous. Body beneath 

 coarsely punctured. Leffs piceous. 



Its deep-black surface, in conjunction with the just perceptibly rufescent patch, 

 on either side of its prothorax, about the centre, wall more than suffice to 

 distinguish the common European A. grcmarius from the other Apliodii here 

 described. It is a universal iusect throughout Madeu-a and Porto Santo, — 

 occurring at all elevations, fi-om the level of the sea-shore and the streets of 

 Funchal (where it may be frequently captured on the wing) to within a short 

 distance of the extreme summits of the peaks. During July of 1850 it was 

 tolerably abimdantiu the upland region of the Tanal. 



Genus 79. OXYOMUS. 



(Eschscholtz) De Castehi. Hist. ii. 98 (1840). 



Corpus minusculum, oblongo-ovatum, plerumque nigrum : chjpeo spepius semi-hexagono antice leviter 

 emarginato, punctato sed hand tuberculato : profhorace modo integro, modo postice canaliculato : 

 scutello distincto : elytris plerumque profunde sulcatis : alls amphs. Antenna, labrum, mandibula, 

 maxillm, mentum et ligula fere ut in Aphodio, sed maxillarum lobo externo apicem versus pectinato- 

 piloso. Palpi vix filiformes ; maxillares glabri, articulo primo minuto subflexuoso, secundo 

 longiore subclavato, tertio brevi, ultimo elongate (secundo longiore) fusiformi-ovato sed per mar- 

 ginem internum areuato : labiales leviter pilosi, e ligula ad lobos menti anticos surgentes, articulo 

 primo breviusculo, secundo paulo crassiore, ultimo elongato (primo multo longiore) ovato. Pedes 

 valitU subretractiles : tibiis anticis dilatatis, extus fortiter tridentatis, posterioribus spinulosis: 

 tarsis filiformibus, articulis secundo, tertio et quarto longitudine subsequahbus, primo elongato. 



The present genus may be considered as constitutiag a passage between the 

 Aphodii proper and the Psammodii, approaching the former in its general outline, 

 in the lightly impressed sculptiu'e of its clypeus, in its apically-mucronated tipper 

 lip, and in the membranous and largely dilated outer lobe of its maxillse ; whilst in 

 its freedom from frontal tubercles, in the deep striation of its elytra, siibclavated 

 palpi, and in the elongated basal joint of all its feet, as well as in the obscm^e 

 colour of the insects which compose it, it agrees more evidently with the latter. 

 In its slightly bUobed clypeus, however, and in its sometimes entire, sometimes 

 channeled prothorax, it is intermediate between the two, 



2 g2 



