262 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



gatis, elytris parallelo-oblongis punctato-striatis rugulosis, fasciis duabus (un& sc. sub-basali 

 undulata, sed altera longe ultra medium sita) nivosis ornatis, antennis pedibusque elongatis 

 robustis ferrugineis et dense (prsesertim his) squamosis. 

 Long. Corp. lin. lf-2. 



Ptinus mauritanicus, Lucas, Col. de VAlgerie, 208 (1849). 



Habitat Maderam, et borealem et australem, rarissimus : duo specimina sola vidi, unuin sc. sestate 

 A.D. 1850 in horto Loweano ad Levada, et altcrum ad Passo d'Areia prope Sanctum Vincentium 

 (ad radices Seiiipcrvivi tahuliformis, Haw., in rupibus crescentis latitans) tempore hiberno .\.d. 

 181-9, a meipso reperta. 



P. piceous-black, and sparingly beset with short and decumbent set?e. Prothorax extremely gibbous 

 on the fore-disk, where it is armed with four powerful nodules (the two outer ones of which are 

 far apart and exceedingly prominent, whilst the inner ones are smaller, placed nearer together, 

 and slightly in advance of the others) ; suddenly and greatly constricted behind ; and densely 

 variegated with yellowish-cinereous, deep fulvous-brown, and whitish scales. Scutellum distinct 

 and rounded, and with the scales uniformly yellowish-cinereous (being unmingled with either 

 darker or lighter ones). Elytra ample, oblong, and parallel at the sides; punctate-striated and 

 rugulose ; and with two transverse fasciae (one of which is more or less undulated and placed 

 l)ehind their base, whilst the other is straighter and situated midway between their apex and 

 the centre of their disk) pure snowy-white. Antenna and le(/s elongated and robust, and 

 densely clothed (especially the latter) with yellowish-cinereous scales; the former filiform, with 

 their apical joint more obtuse than that of the P. advena ; the latter with their tarsi broader 

 than those of that insect, — the basal articulation however being, as there, distinctly longer than 

 any of the following three. 



The largest of the Madeiran Ftini; and (apart from the sect iona I characteristics 

 enumerated under the preceding species) it may he at once recognised hy its wide 

 and parallel outline, hy the briglit fulvescent scales of its scutellum and (quadri- 

 tuljcrculate) prothorax, and by the two conspicuous and snowy-white fasciae with 

 which its elytra are adorned, — the anterior one of which moreover is not basal (as in 

 the other decorated members of the group), but sub-basal, and usually well-defined. 

 It is exceedingly rare ; and in its habits (though not in its structm-e) would appear 

 to be somewhat intermediate between the ordinary I^tini of northern latitudes and 

 the more southern tyjie (indicated under the following section), since it occurs 

 both in the vicinity of old houses and, likewise, in the open country. Thus, out 

 of the only two examples which have hitherto come beneath my notice (and which 

 were captured by myself), one was taken near Funchal, dm-ing the smnmer of 

 1850, in the garden of the Rev. Ft. T. Lowe at the Levada ; and the other in the 

 north of the island, in February 1819, at the roots of the Scniperciciim luhuli- 

 forme. Haw., which stud the perpendicular rocks at the Passo d'Areia near Sao 

 Vincente. It is apparently a Mediterranean insect, having been recently described 

 by ^I. Lucas in the magnificent work published by the French Government on the 

 Natm-al Histoi-y of .iUgeria. 



