442 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



H. elongate-ovate, narrow, greatlj' depressed, slightly shining, most closely and minutely punctulated 

 all over, and of a dark brassy hue with a faint tinge of metallic green. Prothorax narrowed (or 

 laterally compressed) in front. Elytra with the punctures rather coarser than those on the pro- 

 thorax; somewhat parallel at the sides; truncated and a little gaping at their extreme apex, — 

 exposing a small portion of the pygidium. Antenna and legs nearly black, — the former long. 



Readily clistinguislicd from the followixij^ species by its narrow and depressed 

 form, thickly punctulated surface, by its long and nearly black antennae, greenish- 

 brassy hue, and by its apically truncated, subdeliiscent elytra. It is by no means 

 a scarce insect ; and found, apparently, in most of the islands of the group, — since 

 I have not only captiu-ed it in Madeu-a proper, but likewise in Porto Santo and on 

 the Dezerta Grande. It closely resembles the common European H. antennota, 

 but is a little more depressed, its eh-tra are somcAvhat more abbreviated and 

 gapkig posteriorly, and its antennae (which are slightly longer) are simple in both 

 sexes. 



336. Haltica Salicaris. 

 H. ovata convexa testacea (oculis solis nigris), prothorace brevi postice in medio transversim impresso, 



elytris punctato-striatis. 

 Long. Corp. lin. 1 j. 



Oaleruca Salicarice, Payk. Fna Suec. iii. 453 (1800). 

 Haltica Salicarite, Gyll. Ins. Suec. iii. 554 (1813). 



, Steph. ni. Brit. Ent. iv. 303 (1831). 



, Eedt. Ftia Austr. 529 (1849). 



Habitat hortos Funchalenses, rarior : in Porta Sancto prsedominat, qua inter gramina in arenis mari- 

 timis crescentia atque super folia Arundinis donacis tempore vernali occurrit. 



H. ovate, rather short, convex, testaceous (the eyes alone being black), and shining. Prothorax most 

 delicately, but not very closely, punctured; short and broad, with an abbrenated transverse 

 impression in the centre of its hinder margin ; with its angles well defined (and almost right 

 angles), — the anterior ones being a little thickened. Elytra punctate-striated, and, together 

 with the antenna and legs, rather paler than the rest of the surface ; the extreme apex of the 

 terminal joint of the antennae (which are shorter than in the last species) dark. 



A very abimdant insect throughout Europe, from whence perhaps it may have 

 been accidentally naturalized in these islands. In Madeu-a proper it is exceedingly 

 scarce, — the only example which has come beneath my observation having been 

 captured by myself, on a sugar-cane, in the Rev. R. T. Lowe's garden near Fimchal. 

 In Porto Santo liowever it is far commoner, where I have taken it in jirofusiou, 

 durmg the spring months, in the vicinity of the Cidiide, — especially on a species of 

 coarse grass, and Arundo donax, with which the loose sand, inmiediately beliind 

 the southern beach, is more or less clothed. Its short and ovate form, in conjunc- 

 tion with its small, transversely-impressed prothorax, pale testaceous hue, and its 



