292 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



Genus 102. APHANARTHRUM, WoU. (Tab. YI. fig. 2.) 



Corpus parvum, cyliiKlricum, laetc coloratum : prothorace amplo convexo, antice producto sed baud 

 scabroso : etytris apice rotundatis integris : alls ampUs. Antenna (VI. 2 a) capitatae ; scapo 

 longissimo clavato, basi flexuoso; funiculo 3-articulato, articulo pi-iiuo robusto apice truncate 

 basi subflexuoso, secundo et tertio minutissimis brevissimis (hoc \ix observando necnon in capi- 

 tuhim oblique inserto) ; capitulo solido ovato pilosissimo quadri-annulato. Labrum obsoletum. 

 Mandibulte (VI. 2 h) corner vabda; subtriangularcs obtusEC, infra apicem dente obtuso instructse, 

 ad basin integrse. Maxilla (VI. 2 c) lobo singula lato setose instructse {intemo obsolete). Palpi 

 cenici; maxillares minutissinii crassi, articulis prime, secundo et tertio brc\issiniis transversis, 

 ultimo paulo longiore graciliore conico ; labiates (V. 2 d) longiores, articulis longitudine sub- 

 a;qualibus, primo et secundo crassis, ultimo gracili ovato basi truncate. Ligula membrauacea 

 elongata, apice truncata. Pedes breves validi : tibiis (VI. 2 e) compressis, apicem versus dila- 

 tatis, extus fortitev dentatis (dentibus, in anticis tribus vel quatuor, in posterioribus septem vel 

 octe), ad apicem internum spina parva recta subacuta armatis : tarsis articulis tribus baseos lon- 

 giusculis crassiusculis subsequalibus (primo vix graciliore), quarto minutissimo, quinto longis- 

 simo unguiculis simplicibus munito. 



Ab a<^avri<; c visu absconditus, et apOpov artus. 



Throughout the whole of the Madeiran insects there is perhaps no form more 

 interesting than the anomalous little species from which the above structural 

 diagnosis has been compiled. In its general facies, it displays a peculiarity of 

 colouring to which we are totally unaccustomed in this department of the Coleop- 

 tcra, in which anything like painted or variegated sm-faces is almost imkno'mi ; 

 whilst in the proportions of its antennae it is scarcely less remarkalile. These last 

 indeed are of a very extraordinary nature, their funiculus being composed of three 

 joints only, — one of which moreover is so excessively minute, as to cause it, before 

 very closely inspected, to appear actually biarticulate. It was some time in fact 

 })efore I discovered this diminutive joint at all, — which is doubly difficult to be 

 detected, not only because of its literally microscopic dimensions, but likcAnse on 

 account of an irregularity which the genus possesses of having its funiculus in- 

 serted obliquely into its club, — the axes of the two, instead of uniting at the point 

 of contact, being separated by an appreciable space ; so that the convexity of the 

 latter entirely conceals this item of the former from view, except when examined 

 in a particular direction, and ui\der favom-able circumstances for definition and 

 light — (a feature which suggested the nanie of Aphanarthrum, as, in the present 

 instance, singularly appropriate). In its smooth prothorax and apically entke 

 elytra it recedes from the tj^pical Tomicidce ; yet its short head, greatly produced 

 prothorax, and very cylindi'ical body, in conjunction with its simple tarsi, point to 

 that family as, nevertheless, its correct location. Upon the whole, I am inclined 

 to think that it may be more akin to Jli/pothcnemits of '^^'estwood (enunciated in 

 the first volume of the Entomological Society's Transactions, in 1836) than to any 

 other genus hitherto known, — which is not only, like Aphanarthnnn, an exception 

 to the generality of these groups as regards hue (exhibiting gay and opposite 



