372 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



included in tliat genus. In its habits moreover it recedes from the whole of 

 the preceding members of the group, being confined exclusively to the exposed 

 mountain-slopes of lofty altitudes, and, so far as I have hitherto observed, never 

 entering the wooded districts. In its short, broad, imexpanded, and longitudi- 

 nally strigulose rostrum, and in its convex and equally-roimded prothorax, as 

 well as in its less densely pul^escent surface and its extra-sylvan nature, it makes 

 an evident regression in the direction of Laparocerus ; and were there the smallest 

 grounds for supposing that the examples from which that genus was established 

 (in 1834) were ^vl•ongly referred to Portugal, by Faldermann (Avho appears either 

 to have collected in, or else to have received insects from, Madeira), I should have 

 been rather inclined to have identified it with the L. piceus of Schonlierr, with 

 which, judging from the description, it would seem in many particulars to agree. 

 Still, several of its most striking characters (as, for instance, the suberect elongated 

 pile with which it is more or less clothed) are not alluded to in the diagnosis as 

 enunciated in the Genera et Species Ci(rcnlionich(m ; and there can be no doubt 

 therefore that if the specimens described from icere in reality Portuguese, they are 

 certainly distinct specifically fi'om the Madeiran ones ; — and it is merely the possi- 

 bility (already hinted at) of a mistake having arisen as to the original types which 

 would induce me to entertain the contrary suspicion at all. In either case, how- 

 ever, oiu" present insect cannot be a Laparocerus, since it wants the modifications 

 both of the antennae and tibia? which constitute the main features of that genus. 

 Nevertheless it does even in these respects make a slight approach towards the 

 Laparoceri, since the former are just perceptibly slenderer than those of the other 

 Atlantides, and the latter are vmconstricted before their extremity, — being gradu- 

 ally expanded from the base, so as scarcely to display any greater breadth about 

 their sul)-basal region than elsewhere. 



The A. vespertinus abovmds, during the winter and early spring, in open grassy 

 spots of high elevations, ranging from about 3000 feet above the sea to the 

 extreme mountain-tops, — and apparently attaining its maximum but a short 

 distance below the summits of the peaks. On the upland ridges from the Fonte 

 das Mocas to the Pico dos Arieros, and from thence to the Pico da Lagoa, I have 

 observed it by thousands in January and Pebruary, congregating beneath stones 

 in company with Heteromcrous and other insects which delight in such localities. 

 The species varies a little m the depth of its sculpture and the density of its 

 pubescence ; but it possesses so many characters essentially its own, that there is 

 but little fear of confounding it with any of the other Atlantides with which Ave 

 have here to do. 



284. Atlantis lanatus, WoU. (Tab. YII. fig. G.) 

 A. elongato-ovatus nigro-, vel fusco-piceus, pube subfulvescenti-cinered robust^ depressfi parce varie- 

 gatus, prothorace remote punctato, punctis maximis sed baud semper profundis, elj^ris profunde 

 punctato-striatis, pilis valde clougatis erectis moUissimis lanatis dense adspersis, intcrstitiis 



