INSECTA MADERENSIA. 239 



surgentes, articulo primo parvo, secundo paiilo longiore crassiore, ultimo elongate subovato apice 

 vix truncato. Mentum amplum subquadratum membranaceum, antice integrum tenuissimum. 

 Ligula magna membranacea, antice lata, apice truncata pilosa bifida. Pedes elongati : femo- 

 ribus (prsesertim posticis) incrassatis : tibiis gracilibus : tarsis filiformibus simplicibus elongatis, 

 articulis quatuor baseos longitudine decrescentibus, quinto longissimo unguiculis simplicibus 

 munito. 



A KOTTTO'} sectus, et <TTrj6o<i pectus. 



The very interesting insect from which the above structural diagnosis has been 

 compLled Avould aj^pear, in its habits and general affinity, to be the Madeiran 

 analogue of Cryj}tohypmts, though at the same time with too many distinctive 

 features of its own to allow of its being referred to that genus. Thus, for instance, 

 its apterous and excessively villose body, in conjunction with its largely developed 

 prothorax, the enormous length of its antennae (of which the second joint only is 

 minute, — the third being scarcely smaller than the foUoAving one), and the unusual 

 tliickness of its posterior femora, w^ill more than suffice, apart from the modifica- 

 tions of its oral organs, to separate it, even prima facie, from the members of that 

 and the immediately adjoining groups. It would seem to be of the greatest rarity, 

 two specimens merely having come beneath my notice, — captured by myself in 

 Porto Santo during the winter of 1848 : and since it is the only representative of 

 the Elateri(l(B which enters into our fauna, it follows that in Madeira j)roper the 

 family, so far at least as our researches up to the present period would tend to 

 prove, is literally not even indicated, — a fact so perfectly astounding as, a priori, 

 to be well nigh incredible. It cannot of course be positively affirmed that a 

 department so vast and important as the Elateridce is actually non-existent in 

 an island thus extensive, and abounding in every condition and requisite for its 

 subsistence, inasmuch as it is not possible to prove a negative proposition ; but I 

 can add with certainty, that, diu'ing my repeated investigations of it, distributed 

 over an interval of nearly three years, and those of the Rev. R. T. Low^, tkrough- 

 out a far longer period, and from amongst the constant collections which have 

 been from time to time communicated to me by friends on the spot (which how- 

 ever have not added, in all, more than about thirty species, in the Coleoptera, to 

 those which I had myself detected), not so much as the fragment of an Elater has 

 been hitherto Ijrought to light ; and we are therefore at least entitled to conclude 

 that, should any member of this widely-distributed race be present, it must occur 

 in very scanty numbers to have escaped oiu* combined observations thus far. We 

 have ali'eady had occasion to advert to the remarkable circumstance that the 

 Thalerophagous Lamellicornes should have but a single form, apparently, to bear 

 them witness in the Madeii-an group : but strange as that u.nquestionably is, in a 

 coimtry where sunshine may be said to be the one controlling element, it is 

 perhaps surpassed by the total absence (if such be indeed the case) of the Elate- 

 ridce from the central mass ; — whilst even in the smaller adjacent island of Porto 

 Santo it is but just expressed. 



