INSECTA MADERENSIA. 317 



obsoletely punctured ; the former elongate and sub-porrected ; the latter narrowed anteriorly, 

 and widest behind the middle, where it is of about the same breadth as the elytra. Elytra 

 parallel, pubescent, and lightly punctate-striated. Legs of a slightly paler testaceous hue than 

 the rest of the body. 



Excessively rare, the only two specimens wMch I have seen having been 

 captured by myself, in the north of Madeira, on the 23rd of July 1850, in 

 the remote sylvan district of the Lombo dos Pecegueiros, towards the eastern 

 edge of the Ribeira de Jofio Delgada. 



Genus 112. MESITES. 



Schonherr, Gen. et Spec. Cure. iv. 1043 (1838.) 



Corpus mediocre, sublineare, sculpturatum : fronts canaliculato : rostro elongato subdeflexo ; in 

 maribus crassiusculo punctulato canaliculato, prope vel ante medium (ad antennarum inser- 

 tionem) plus minusve ampliato ; in foeminis tenuiore integro, prope basin (ad antennarum inser- 

 tionem) punctato ampliato, deinde laeviore tereti : oculis mediocribus subrotundatis : prothorace 

 apice plus minusve coarctato, basi subsinuato-truncato : scutello distincto Isevi subrotundato : 

 elytris plus minusve parallelis, (in Europjeis fere glabris, sed in speciebus Maderensibus) sub- 

 tiliter vel subtilissime pubescentibus, basi sinuato-truncatis : alls parvis, subobsoletis. Antenrue 

 longiusculae valida;, in maribus prope vel ante medium, in foeminis ad vel prope basin rostri 

 insertae ; funiculo capituloque fere ut in Stenotis, sed hoc solidissimo (annulis baud observandis). 

 Pedes fere ut in Stenotis, sed longiores validiores, anticis basi paulo distantioribus, tibiis omnibus 

 fortius uncinatis, et articulo tarsorum antepenuUimo minus profunde bilobo. 



Mesites was established by Schonherr, in 1838, to receive the three Eiu'opean 

 Cossoni {pallidipennis, Tarclii, and cunipes), in which the antennse, iastead of being 

 inserted, as in the remainder, towards the apex of the rostrum, are placed about (or 

 a little before) the middle in the males, and at (or just in front of) the base in the 

 females. Since the publication of the Genera et Species Curctdionkhim, no addi- 

 tions have been made to the group ; and therefore two well-defined representatives 

 from Madeira become extremely interestiag, — and especially so since they would 

 appear, from then* vast numbers, to play a prominent part amongst the Coleo- 

 pterous population of the upland districts of the island. The very near relationship 

 moreover of one of them (in aspect, structure and habits) to an insect which, until 

 discovered by myself in the south-west of England, was supposed to be exclusively 

 Irish, must give the genus a geographical importance peculiarly its own, and 

 scarcely sm-passed by any other with which we have here to do. The species of 

 Mesites are eminently gregarious, congregating beneath the loose bark of trees, 

 from which they seldom wander except at night. Great variability in statm-e may 

 be, also, regarded as amongst the most essential of their features. So wide indeed 

 is the range through which they severally pass, that small individuals are often 

 scarcely one-third of the size attained by larger ones of the same race ; and hence 



