304 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



met with in northern latitudes; but whether this particular state obtains in 

 Madeira generally I am xmable to say, — though it is probalile that the insect 

 would not be exempt from those altei-nations of hue which characterize it in other 

 countries. In Erichson's analysis of this family, published in IFiegrnonn's 

 Archices in 1836, the present species is admitted into his genus Dendroctonus. 

 It unquestionably however possesses six joints to its funiculus ; and since almost 

 the only distinctive featiu'e on which that group is made to rest is the qitadri- 

 articulate structure of this portion of the antennae, it is certain that the pinijjerda 

 is wrongly referred to Dendroctonus, and that it belongs in reality to Hylurgus. 



Genus 106. HYLASTES. 



Erichson, Wiegm. Arcliii; i. -47 (1836). 



Corpus parvum, plus minusve ovato- vel elongato-cylindricum : capite producto : prothorace antice 

 ssppius subacuminato, vix producto et baud scabroso : alls amplis. Antenna breves capitatse ; 

 scapo elongate clavato, basi flexuoso; fuuiculo 7-articulato, articulo prime robusto apice trun- 

 cato ad basin constricto sinuato, reliquis longitudine decrescentibus, a basi angusta latitudine 

 paulatim crescentibus ; capitulo solido brevi-ovato quadri-annulato. Labrum obsoletum. Man- 

 (libula, maxilla, palpi, ligula, et pedes fere ut in Hylurgo. 



The 7-jointed funiculus of Hylastes ^\ill at once separate it from every other 

 genus, both of tlic present family and of the Tomic'ulcc, here described. The only 

 allied Eurojjean form in fact in wliich that portion of the antennae is made up of 

 a similar number of articulations is Hi/lesiniis, — but there the joints are more 

 minute, and of subequal breadth throughout, whereas here they are gradually and 

 uniformly thickened from the base to the club. In Ili/lastes moreover the clava 

 is shorter and less acimiinated than it is in Hylesinns, the scape is less distinctly 

 curved, the head is more produced, the entu'e body is longer and less convex, and 

 the tibiae are more powerfully denticulated externally, — the anterior pan* of which 

 are, likemse, less suddenly flattened outwards at theu' apex than is there the case. 

 The species display, inter se, considerable diversity of ovitline, some bcLag elon- 

 gated and cylindrical, whilst others are nearly ovate. The only two which I have 

 hitherto detected in these islands happen to represent these opposite extremes, 

 and hence they might be almost suj^posed prima facie to belong to different 

 genera. They retain however in common the essential characteristics of Hylastes, 

 ;ind merely require the intermediate links which elsewhere exist to make them 

 intelligible members, even when viewed superficially, of one and the same group. 



230. Hylastes Trifolii. 



H. subovato-cylindricus brevis fusco-niger subopacus, capite minus elongato, prothorace antice acumi- 

 nate creberrime ruguloso-subpunctato, elytris vix dilutioribus crebre rugosis et ebsciu'e punctato- 

 striatis, antennis pallido-ferrugineis, pedibus piceis. 



Long. corp. lin. li. 



