INSECTA MADERENSIA. 487 



Habitat m montibus Maderse, ve! per regionem sylvaticam (sub truucis arboriim prolapsis) vel sub 

 lapidibus iu aperto, inter 1800' et 5000' s. m., toto anno frequens : var. (3. sola ad Desertani 

 Grandeni nisi fallor solam pertinet. 



E. ellijjtical, dark Eeneous, exceedingly convex, highly polished, entirely free from pubescence, and 

 minutely punctulated all over (the punctui-es however being more apparent on the elytra than on 

 the head and prothorax). Antenna, palpi, and %s ferruginous ; the first rather more thickened, 

 apically, in the males than in the females ; and the last with their tibice generally more or less 

 infuscated. 

 Var. /3. a trifle longer and of a rather darker hue ; not quite so shining, the entire surface being 

 most minutely granulated, and some of the punctures of the elytra having an obscure tendency 

 to be disposed in rows (especially towards the suture), — a peculiarity which is very rarely trace- 

 able in the Madeiran specimens. Antenna, palpi, and legs entirely ferruginous. (The state 

 peculiar to the Dezerta Grande.) 



Universal throughout the mountainous districts of Madeira, — appearing to 

 range from ahout 1800 to 5000 feet above the sea, though attaiaing its maximum 

 perhaps midway between those limits. In its habits, it is of a retiring natm-e, 

 and avoids the light, residing either beneath stones on the exposed grassy slopes, 

 or at the roots of trees and ranlc vegetation within the sylvan regions. It would 

 seem to exist at aU seasons of the year ; nevertheless it is more particularly abun- 

 dant dm-ing the sprmg and early siunmer months, I have captured it on most of 

 the uplands above Funchal, and towards the head of the Ribeu-o de Santa Luzia, 

 from January to March ; at the edges of the Curral das Ereii'as in April ; in the 

 chestnut-woods of Santa Anna in May ; on the Lombo das Vacas ia June ; at the 

 Cruziahas and the Lombo dos Pecegueu-os in July ; and at the Feijaa de Corte 

 and the Ribeii-o Frio in August. The var. (3. is the form peculiar to the Dezerta 

 Grande, — where I took it, sparingly, from under stones, during my encampment 

 on that island with the Rev. R. T. Lowe, at the end of ]May 1850. Although but 

 a slight aberration from the normal state, it is interesting, when viewed geogra- 

 phically, — as affording an additional example of the modifying influences of 

 isolation and local circumstances, to those which have been ah-eady enimierated. 

 Fabricius, who fh-st characterized the species from a Madeu-an specimen (still to be 

 seen ia the Banksian collection of the linnsean Society), evidently feU into some 

 confusion respecting it, — since he not only reports it as black, whereas it is entirely 

 and invariably seneous, and identifies it with the Si)li(BricUum fmciini of Olivier, 

 with which it has nothing in common ; but he even states that it (or at any rate an 

 insect scarcely to be distinguished from it) occurs likewise in Germany ! (which is 

 almost too absurd to require refutation). Indeed, had his diagnosis and reference 

 been alone extant, it would have been perfectly impossible to have recognised 

 Ellipsodes in either of them ; but, siuce he expressly records it as Madeiran, and 

 since the original example is in preservation (so as to leave no doubt on the 

 subject), the name of glabratus, in spite of his errors both in identification and 

 description, must, according to the laws of priority, be retained. 



