INSECTA MADERENSIA. 421 



in the north of the island) has hitherto come beneath my notice, and it is most 

 probably an imported insect into Madeka : nevertheless, not having been al^le to 

 identify it with any species wliich I have had an opportunity of examining, I have 

 been compeUed to describe it as new. It may be immediately known by its sub- 

 eUiptical outline and short limbs, by its greatly abbreviated elytra, and by the 

 rufo-testaceous hue of its legs, and of the base and apical joint of its antennte. 

 The spine of its hinder femora, also, is longer and more acute than that of either 

 of the other members of the genus with which we have here to do. 



§ II. Scutellwm minutissimum, vix observandum. 



324. Bruchus lichenicola, Woll. (Tab. VIII. fig. 9.) 

 B. ovatus niger, pube fulvescenti et cinerea densissime variegatus, elytris striatis et fasciis duabus 

 albido-ciuereis ornatis, antennarum basi pedibusque rufo-testaceis, femoribus posticis obscure 

 dentatis. 

 Variat antennis omnino testaceis et dente femorum posticorum valde indistmcto. 



Long. Corp. lin. f-I. 



Habitat ins. Portus Sancti et Desertje Grandis, inter lichenes in rupium fissuris nascentes, tempore 

 hiberno et vernali \nilgaris : in jMadera propria mihi uon obvius. 



B. minute and ovate, black, and most densely clothed with fulvescent and ashy-white pubescence 

 above,— but with entirely pale beneath. Protlwrax closely punctured and subrugulose,— the 

 paler pubescence preponderating at its sides (which are rounded) and, generally, towards the 

 centre of its hinder margin, in front of the scutellum (which is very minute, and only just distin- 

 guishable). Elytra striated; and adorned with two more or less evident fasciai of the paler 

 (ashy-white) pubescence, common to both,— one of which is postmedial, and the other (which is 

 widely interrupted at the suture) antemedial. Antenna and legs rather fragile ; the /ora^er with 

 their base (sometimes with the apes also), and the legs, rufo-testaceous. Hinder femora with a 

 small and very obscure tooth beneath, which is occasionally nearly obsolete. 



A most distinct and truly incHgenous Uttle Bruchus —hein^ moreover the 

 smallest member of the genus with which I am acquainted, averaging about three- 

 quarters of a line in length. Independently however of its diminutive bulk, it is 

 characterized by the excessive mimiteness of its scutellum and femoral tooth, by 

 its unusually /rfl^ife (though not particularly slender) limbs, and by the two more 

 or less evident ashy-white fascia? with which its elytra are adorned. Its habits 

 are of a very exclusive nature, it being confined, so far as I have hitherto observed, 

 to the Hchen of the exposed weather-beaten peaks,— amongst the thick masses of 

 which in the crevices of the rocks of Porto Santo and the Dezerta Grande it 

 literaUy teems. I have not as yet detected it in Madeu-a proper, but in the former 

 of those islands I might have captui-ed it by thousands dming December 1848 

 and April 1849 ; whilst, in May of 1850, it was scarcely less abundant on the 



