342 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



by myself, by brushing the rank vegetation at the extreme head of the Ribeu'o de 

 Santa Luzia (on the summit of the high bank to the left of the waterfall) during 

 May of 181.9. 



265. Acalles Wollastoni. 

 A. subovato-oblongus angustus, squamis cinereo-brunneis parce nebulosus ; prothorace subcylindrico 



postice convexo, baud tuberculato et vix setuloso, ad apicem minus acuminato et vL\ setuloso ; 



scutello distincto ; elytris punctato-striatis, ad latera vLx rotundatis, baud nodulosis sed plaga 



transversa communi postmcdia, ct fascia antemedia obliqua (interdum in nebulam subscutellarem 



obsoletissimam antice suffusa), segre discernendis subcinereis, ornatis. 

 Long. Corp. lin. ^1^. 



Acalles Wollastoni, ChcnTolat, in Quer. Eev. de Zool. iv. (2i^n>« serie) 279 (1852). 



Hnbitat in graminosis humidiusculis ^Maderfe, praisertim per partem sylvaticam, restate, rarior : ad 

 Lombo dos Pccegueiros et Ribeiro Frio mensibus Julio et Augusto cepi ; necnon unicum exemplar 

 etiam iu castanetis Sanctie Annse Maio exeunte a.d. 1850 inveni. 



A. subovate-oblong, and narrow, most sparingly variegated vnih brownish, and besprinkled wnth 

 ashy, scales. Rostrum as in the last species. Prothorax aj)parently unchanneled ; subcylindrical, 

 convex behind, untubercled, and almost free from seta;; slightly produced, though scarcely at all 

 acuminated or setose, at the apex. Scutellum large. Elytra punctate-striated, with the sides 

 not quite so straight as in the last species, — being a little more rounded, with the widest part 

 about, instead of behind, the middle; without nodules or ridges; with a faint, transverse, post- 

 medial cloud, common to both (just perceptibly bounded in front, and sometimes likewise be- 

 hind, by a more iufuscated portion of the surface), — and with the rudiments of an oblique ante- 

 medial fascia (occasionally suffused iu front iuto a most indistinct scutellary patch, — the two 

 together, in that case, forming an almost obsolete basal blotch), just perceptibly clothed with 

 ashy-white scales. Antenna and legs as in the last species. 



This very minute Acalles (the smallest, so far as I have hitherto observed, of 

 the whole Madeu-an CurcuUonidce) may be distinguished, apart from its diminu- 

 tive size, by the almost obsolete patches and fasciae of its elytra, which are so 

 obscvirely developed as to render the law of their formation, at first sight, not 

 very clear. Without indeed the remainder of the genus to guide us (iu which o)ie 

 type of coloimng, presenting successive modiiications for the several species, may 

 be considered as prevailing more or less tlu'oughout), we perhaps might have failed 

 to recognise anything like a fixed arrangement in the very faint lights and shades 

 of this remarkable little insect : nevertheless, after a careful examination of its 

 allies, we shall at once perceive that the parts of its sui-face which (from the ashy- 

 white scales with wliich they are sparmgly clothed) are just perceptiljly more 

 blanched tlian the rest, are in reality the combined result of a postmediol patch 

 and a scarcely distinguishable antemedial fascia, — the latter of which, from being 

 (jl)lique, and generally more or less suffused in fi-ont into a palish scutellai-y blotch, 

 loses its true character and assumes the form (wlien indeed it is sufficiently appa- 



