INSECTA MADERENSIA. 283 



distinct hood over the head), from the other members of the genus here described. 

 In conjunction mth the Octotemnns opacus, it is perhaps one of the most abimdant 

 and destructive of all the Madeu-an Coleoptera, — occurring, often by thousands, 

 beneath the bark of the native lam^els at intermediate and lofty elevations. In 

 some of the damp sylvan districts which are difficult of access it literally teems, — 

 undergoing its changes, generation after generation, imtouched. In such positions 

 it does not confine its ravages to the trees alone, siace the fungi are equally its 

 food, — some of the larger species of which may be occasionally observed almost 

 alive with it. I have captured it in profusion on the Lombo das Vacas, and in the 

 regions of the Boa Ventura and the Eibeko Frio : and it has been taken by the 

 Rev. R. T. Lowe in the nearly inaccessible mountain-ravine between the Sao Vin- 

 cente valley and the Ribeiro do Inferno. 



Genus 98. OCTOTEMNUS. 



Mellie, Ann. de la Soc. i:nt. de France (2i^""<= serie) \\. 384 (1848). 



Corpus sat minutum, subfusiformi- cylindricum, durum : capite deflexo : prothorace antice levitei- pro- 

 ducto integro : alls amplis. Antenna 8-articulatse clavatse, articulis primo et secundo robustis 

 (illo longiore crassiorc), tertio longiusculo subgvacili, quarto et quinto minutis subajqualibus, re- 

 liquis clavam magnam elongatam perfoliatam triarticulatam efficientibus (articulis subsqualibus, 

 sexto et septimo vix majoribus globosis, octavo globoso-ovato). Instrumenta cibaria fere lit in 

 geuere prsecedenti ; sed palpi paulo graciliores, maxillarium articulo ultimo valde elongato. Pedes 

 pamm graciles subcontraetiles : tibiis apice leviter dilatatis, per marginem externum minutissime 

 serratis : tarsis 4-articulatis, articulis tribus baseos minutis subtequalibus, quarto longissimo 

 subclavato. 



Octotemnns differs from Cis, priacipally, in ha^ing but eight joints to its 

 antennae (the club of which moreover is exceedingly abrupt, and has its extremity 

 free from the acute tubercle which is so conspicuous in that genus), and in its 

 tibiae being very minutely spiuulose along theu- entire outer edge. The size also 

 of the only two knowTi species (the Madeiran representative being one of them) 

 which compose it is smaller, the body somewhat more fusiform, and the palpi 

 rather slenderer, and more acuminated at thek apex. In other respects it coin- 

 cides almost entu'ely with Cis. 



217. Octotemnns opacus. 

 O. fusiformi-cylindricus piceus subopacus tenuissime punctulatus et parce subtiliter pubescens, pro- 

 thorace antice producto necnon ad latera rotundato et angustissime marginato, elytris plerumque 

 (prsesertim basin versus) pallido-castaneis, antennis pedibusque testaceis, illarum clava nigrescenti. 

 Long. corp. lin. 1. 



Octolemnus opacus, IMellie, Ann. de la Soc. Eni. de France (2'^'°^ serie) vi. 386 (1848). 



Habitat per regionem Maderfe sylvaticam, in fungis vel sub cortice arborum, toto anno vulgatissimus. 



2 o 2 



