348 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



The present beautiful Fissocles has in all probability been introduced into Ma- 

 deira from liigher latitudes, — perhaps with, the firs which are now extensively 

 cultivated on the uplands above Funchal, and amongst which I have hitherto 

 alone observed it. It is an insect, however, eitlier of a natiu*ally wide geographical 

 range or else with great powers of clLmatal ada])tatiou, it being recorded in nearly 

 all the countries between the limits of Lapland and Barbary. Nevertheless there 

 can be no doubt that it is normally either a boreal or an alpine form, since it 

 would appear to attain its maximum in the pine forests of northern Europe. In 

 the large fir woods of Madeira, especially those of Senlior D'Ornellas, which clothe 

 a considerable portion of the nioimtain-slopes to the south of the island, I have 

 occasionally detected it in tolerable abundance dui'uig the autumnal mouths ; and 

 in November 1817 it occurred to me in actual profusion at the Curral das Eo- 

 meiras, from beneath chippings of wood, and out of the creWces of the stumps of 

 recently felled trees. 



Genus 120. LIXUS. 

 Fabricius, Syst. Eiit. ii. 498 (1775). 



Corpus magnum vel mediocre, elongato-subeylindricum, durum, plus minusve pubcscens et farinosum : 

 rostri) elongato subarcuato valido ; oculis subovatis : jjnjthurace conico, basi sinuato : scutello 

 minutissimo, vix observando : elytris elongatis cylindricis, antice singulatim rotundatis et pro- 

 thoracis basi vix latioribus, ad apicem modo seorsum acuminatis et plus minusve dehiscentibus, 

 modo conjunctim rotundatis : alis amplis. Antenna; mediocrcs, ante medium rostri insertae ; 

 t'uniculo 7-articulato, articulis primo et secundo longiusculis subobconicis, reliquis brcvioribus 

 (septimo latiore, clavse adpresso) ; capitulo ovate, apice acuminato, quadri-annulato. Pedes 

 robusti, antici basi approximati : femoribus modo (ut in speciebus Maderensibus) niuticis, modo 

 subtus dentatis : ti/jiis vel rcctis vel subrectis, ad ajjicem externum in uncum magnum valde 

 dctlcxum productis. 



The immense genus Lixus, so universally distributed throughout the world, and 

 nearly 200 species of which are described in Schonherr's great Avork on the C'lir- 

 calionidce, may be known by the elongated, hardened, subcylincbical bodies of the 

 usually somewhat large uisects which compose it, and most of which have a ten- 

 dency to be slightly pubescent, and more or less clothed with a very fine powdery 

 substance resembling pollen. This dust-Hke covering is, in aU probability, com- 

 posed of exceedingly minute scales, wliich from their great delicacy are peculiarly 

 perishable, and consequently not often fully apparent except on fresh or imrubl)ed 

 specimens. The prothorax of the LLvi is conical, being generally about" as wide 

 behind as the base of their el}i:ra ; theu- scutellum is so small as to be scarcely 

 distinguishable ; and their clji:ra are, each of them, much rounded at the anterior 

 margin, whUst at the apex they are either conjointly obtuse (as in the ordinary 

 Coleoptcra), or else separately acuminated, and with the two points more or less 

 recurved and divergent. They are insects which occur exclusively u})on plants, at 



