284 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



O. somewhat fusiform-cylindric (being a little narrowed both before and behind), convex, dark piceous, 

 slightly opake, most delicately granulated all over, and very sparingly clothed with a minute, 

 decumbent, and somewhat cinereous pubescence. Head rounded and slightly margined anteriorly, 

 and with a deep transverse impression in front. Prothorax convex (the sides being rounded) ; 

 rather narrowed and produced anteriorly (where it is of a bright reddish-brown) ; very minutely 

 and uniformly punctulated ; the lateral and hinder edges most narrowly margined ; both the 

 anterior and posterior angles, especially the former, much rounded off; and with slight indica- 

 tions (sometimes only just traceable) of an obscure central ridge. Elytra rather more shining 

 than the prothorax ; also with the punctures smaller, and with the surface towards their base a 

 little roughened ; of a more or less bright chestnut-brown, — the humeral region of each being 

 often exceedingly pale. Antenna and lec/s pale testaceous ; the former with their club darkly 

 infuscated. 



A species closely allied to the common European 0. ghibriculns (wliich, as 

 already stated, is the only other member of the genus hitherto described) ; never- 

 theless it may be recognised from that insect by being larger, more opake, and 

 distinctly pubescent, by ha\ing the produced anterior portion of its pronotum 

 bright reddish-brown, by its elytra being of a much more diluted hue (especially 

 at theu" base) than the prothorax, and by the extreme paleness of its antennae and 

 legs, — the former of which however have theu- club uniformly dark. M. MeUie's 

 diagnosis of it, in the Annales de la Societe Entomolofjique de France (compiled 

 from a single specimen wliich I forwarded to him after my retiu-n from the 

 Madeu-a Islands in 1818), is not quite correct, — since it is there stated to be 

 glabrous ; whereas the existence of a Avell-defined (though sparingly scattered) 

 pile is one of the most important of the characters which serve to separate it from 

 its more northern ally (on ^^•hich I am unable to detect the smallest traces, even 

 beneath a liigli magnifying power, of any pubescence at all). It is abundant 

 throughout the whole sylvan districts of Madeira, especially between the limits 

 of from about 3000 to 5000 feet above the sea. Like the Cis Laiiri (with w^hich 

 it is often found in company), it is occasionally to be met with by thousands, par- 

 ticularly in a species of gigantic fimgus which occm-s in the dense raWnes of inter- 

 mediate altitudes. At the Lombo dos Pecegueu-os, the Feijua de C6rte, in the 

 region of the Ribeu-o Frio, and at the Cvu-ral das Eomeii-as (above Funchal) I 

 have observed it in the utmost profusion. 



Genus 99. PTILINUS. . ^^^^ 



Geoffroy, Hist. Abr. des Ins. i. 65 (ITe^S- 



Corptts sat parvum, elongatum, cylindricum, durum : capite dellexo : prothorace subgloboso convexo, 

 antice producto et scabroso : alls amplis. Antenna intus in foeminis serratae, in maribus valde 

 llabcilatie ; articulis primo et sccundo (in utroque sexu) simplicibus (illo leviter robusto, hoc 

 parvo brcvissimo intus subnodoso), tertio ad dccimum in foemin.i intus scrratis, in mare in lobos 

 (primo bre\i obtuso, reliquis longissimis) lincaribus intus productis, ultimo in foeminis ovate, in 

 maribus liiicari longissimo. Lahrum comeum trausversum, antice ])ilusum. Mandibulce cuxtie 



