i74 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



and by the robustness of its eleven-articulated antennse, — -n-hich, it will be per- 

 ceived, not only differ in the number, but likewise in the proportions of their joints 

 (of which, those from the thu"d to the eighth arc of nearly the same length but 

 gradually increase in breadth, wliilst the terminal three make up an extremely 

 large, abrupt and internally subfissile club). The penultimate articulation, also, 

 of its feet, although small, is not so minute as is the case either in Sericoderus or 

 A^'throlips. 



364. Clypeaster pusiUxis. (Tab. X. fig. 4.) 



C. ovalis subdepressus nigro-fuscus pubescens et punctulatus, prothoracis limbo antico pallido sub- 



pellucido, antennis ferrugineis, pedibus testaceis. 

 Long. Corp. lin. §. 



Cossyphus pimllus, Gyll. Ins. Suec. ii. 576 (1810). 

 Clypeoiter pusiUus, Germ. Fna Col. Eur. fasc. ^iii. 10 (1822). 

 -, Eedt. Fna Austt: 572 (1849). 



Habitat in graminosis IMaderse (pra-sertim borcalis), restate non infrequciis : in castanetis Sanctje 

 Anna: et Sancti Vincentii nicnsc Jiiuio abundat ; necnon in ins. Dcscrta; Grandis Maio cxeunte 

 A.D. 1850 exemplar unicum invcni. 



C. oval, rather depressed above, but convex beneath, dusky- or blaekish-browu, very slightly shining, 

 pubescent, and rather coarsely punctulated. Pruthurax large and semi-ovate (its sides being 

 almost parallel behind, and its posterior angles nearly right angles) ; testaceous in front, where 

 it is also somewhat transparent. Elytra with their extreme apex usually a little diluted in 

 colouring (occasionally almost testaceous). Antenna ferruginous, with their apical region gene- 

 rally darker. Leffs dull testaceous. 



The larger size and more oval or parallel outline of the present insect, in con- 

 junction with its browner hue, its somewhat duller and more depressed siu'face, 

 and its coarser punctuation, would be at once sufficient, even in the aljsence of 

 structural characters, to distinguish it from Artlirolips. It is not uncommon in 

 Madeira, though apparently more abundant towards the northern than the southern 

 coast, — occurring in grassy spots, beneath trees, diu-ing the spring and summer 

 mouths. In Jvme and July of 1850 I took it in profusion in the chestnut-woods 

 of Santa Anna and Sao Vinccnte, especially the former ; as also imder similar 

 cu'cumstances, though more sparingly, at the Lombo dos Pecegueiros : and I 

 likewise captured a specimen on the Dezerta Grande (in company with a host of 

 the Artlirolips piceum), during my encampment on that island with the Rev. 

 R. T. Lowe, late in May of the same year. It is foimd throughout the greater 

 portion of Em-ope, but has not yet been observed in our o\w\ coimtry*. The 



* Since the above was written, a single specimen has been detected in England, — captured by myself" 

 at Spridlington near Lincoln (a locality in which, singularly enough, another Madciran insect, of the 

 greatest rarity in the British Isles, though existing on the continent, namely the Hahrocerus eapiUari- 

 coriiis, has been recently obtained). 



