INSECTA MADERENSIA. 325 



168 species of wliich are described in Sclionherr's Genera et Species Curculionidimi, 

 are especially abundant in Eiu^opean latitudes, — frequenting, for the most part, 

 the flowers and foliage of the smaller plants, upon the roots of which, in their 

 larva state, they principally feed. 



§ I. Femora fortiter dentata : tihim intermedim sinuatw. 



248. Ceutorhynchus Echii. 

 C. niger fusco-squamosiis, prothorace leviter canaliculato, mai-gine postico lineisque tribus angustis 



albis, elytris obtriangulari-quadi'atis, versus latera muricatis, undique lineolis albis (quibusdam 



obliquis) ornatis, pedibus albo-irroratis, tarsis rufo-piceis. 

 Long. Corp. lin. 2^-3. 



Curculio Echii, Fab. Ent. Si/st. i. ii. 436 (1792). 



, Mshm. Ent. Brit. i. 279 (1802). 



Nedym Echii, Steph. III. Brit. Ent. iv. 38 (1831). 

 Ceutorhynchus Echii, Schon. Gen. et Spec. Cure. iv. 504 (1837). 



Habitat Maderam, rarior ; necnon in montibus Portus Sancti, qua super plantas Echii violacei, Linn. 

 ( = -E. plantagimi, Linn.) ibidem crescentes mensibus Aprili et Maio a.d. 1848 plurima speci- 

 mina inveni. 



C. black, clothed beneath with whitish, and above with fuscous scales. Head with a faint keel 

 down the centre. Prothorax with a narrow and faint dorsal channel, an obscure tubercle on 

 either side of its disk, and with its front margin considerably elevated; its extreme hinder 

 margin, three (more or less distinct) narrow longitudinal lines, and sometimes with indica- 

 tions also of a transverse one, white. Elytra obtriangular-quadrate (the sides being oblique 

 and almost straight), and abbreviated at the apex; roughened with small projecting prominences 

 towards the lateral edges and shoulders ; and more or less ornamented with narrow, longitudinal, 

 white lines, and a few broken and irregular transverse or oblique ones,— giving the entire sur- 

 face a somewhat pencilled appearance. Legs more or less clothed with whitish scales : femora 

 with a large and powerful spine beneath : intermediate tibia slightly sinuated or curved : tarsi (as 

 also the antenna) rufo-piceous. 



The large size of the present Ceutorhynchus, added to its powerfully spined 

 femora, curved intermediate tibiae, and curiously pencilled surface, will at once 

 distinguish it from the remainder of the genus here described. It is an insect 

 widely distributed over central and southern Europe ; and it has been likewise 

 recorded from Egypt. In these islands however it would appear to be extremely 

 local, the only spot in which I have hitherto observed it in Madeu-a proper being 

 the upper extremity of the Ribeii-o de Santa Luzia. In Porto Santo it is more 

 common, where I captured many specimens, on the southern side of the Pico de 

 Eacho, during April and MaylSiS, — from off plants oiEchium violaceum growing 

 on the grassy slopes immediately beneath the summit. 



