434 IXSECTA MADERENSIA. 



330. Deucalion Desertarum, WoU. (Tab. IX. fig. 2.) 



D. oblongo-ovatus subconvexus niger nitidus et fere glaber^ prothorace elongate valde insequali, ad 

 latera spina media instructo, in disco postico fovea magna rotimdatii valde profunda impresso, 

 elytris sparsim varioloso-tuberculatis, antennis elongatis apiceni versus fuscis. 



Long. Corp. lin. 7-8. 



Habitat Desertam Grandem et Australem, rarissime : duo specimina (unum sc. a meipso in summo 

 illius fastigio, e ruj)iuni fissura, Januario exeunte a.d. 1849, et alterum in hac a Rev''" Dom. 

 Lowe d. 3 Jul. ejusdem anni, detecta) sola vidi. 



D. elongated, oblong-ovate, convex, deep black, shining, and almost free from pubescence. AnfenruE 

 nearly as long as the body ; piceous at their base, but fuscous towards their apex. Head large 

 and rather elongated ; with an impressed central line, and with a wide and deep subtriangular 

 fovea on the top of the forehead behind the eyes. Prothorax elongated ; exceedingly uneven 

 and wrinkled, and with the sides produced into an obtuse postmedial spine ; the hinder margin 

 perfectly straight ; broadly and suddenly constricted posteriorly, the constricted band being 

 transversely plicate ; and impressed on its hinder disk (just in front of this coarctate belt) with 

 a large, rounded and exceedingly deep fovea. Elytra with the suture rather depressed, but with 

 scarcely any indications of strife; somewhat irregularly beset with variolose pits, or obliquely- 

 impinged impressions, the anterior edge of each of which is raised into a distinct, rather acute, 

 and slightly overhanging tubercle, — the tubercles being most numerous and most elevated 

 towards the humeral angles and base. Legs slightly piceous, — with the tarsi paler, and with the 

 apex of each of the tibia (especially of the four binder ones) beset with yellowish pile. 



Apparently of the utmost rarity, the only two specimens which I have seen 

 having been captured on the respective summits of the IMicklle and Southern 

 Dezertas. The one from the former was taken by myscK, dui'ing a week's sojourn 

 in that desolate spot, with the Eev. W. J. Armitage, in January 1849. I extracted 

 it from out of a crevice of an exposed weather-beaten peak (where it had secreted 

 itself, in company with the Scarites abbreviatus and several species of Helops) at 

 the immediate point where the great central heights commence to narrow into an 

 almost perpendicular ridge nearly 2000 feet above the sea. Although I searched 

 with the greatest diligence, I could not obtain more ; nor indeed was I able to 

 procm-e it dm-ing a subsequent encampment on the island, Avith the Rev. R.T. Lowe, 

 at the end of May 1850, — even tbovigh I visited the identical crag and split open 

 the fissiu'es, both of it and of the hardened volcanic mud in all directions around 

 it. The second example hitherto detected is from the still more perilous steeps of 

 the Ilhco Bugio, or Southern Dezerta, and it is to the Rev. R. T. Lowe that we are 

 indebted for this interesting contribution to the fauna of that almost unapproach- 

 ul)lc rock. Having, on the 3rd of July 1849, succeeded in reaching the summit, 

 not without much difficulty and at the greatest peril (in the piu-suit principally of 

 laud mollusca and plants), Mr. Lowe informs me that he met with it beneath a 

 slab of stone, and that he was attracted (as ah-eady mentioned) by its remarkable, 

 stridulatmg noise. So local indeed does this insect seem to be, that it, appa- 



