506 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



time, distinctly thickened at their extremities, the elytra are unacuminated poste- 

 riorly, and the aspect (as in Macrostethus) is somewhat cylindrical and obtuse. 

 Specifically, however, the two are widely different, — the Eui-opean representative 

 (for an opportunity of examining which I am indebted to M. Deyrolle of Paris) 

 beiag not only smaller than its Madcu-an ally, and without any indication of the 

 peculiar tubercidose sculptm-e which is there so conspicuous ; but possessing like- 

 Avise a very oppositely shaped prothorax (which, as in the more typical Blapes, is 

 strongly margined, broadest before the middle, and slightly excavated beliiud). 



Genus 173. BLAPS. 



Fabriciua, &yst. Ent. 254 (1775). 



Corpus magnum, elongatum, plus miuusve ovato-subellipticum, depressiusculum : fronte ad latera 

 leviter elevata, ad apicem recte truiicata : prothorace angustc niargiuato : metasterno postice haud 

 bifido : ehjti-is connatis, apice (proesertim in foeminis) acuminatis : alis obsoletis. Antenna fere 

 ut in jMacrostetho, sed apicem versus moniliformes et minus incrassatte (articulis quatuor apica- 

 libus, ultimo acuminato-ovato excepto, subglobosis) . Instrumenta cibaria fere ut in ilacrostetbo, 

 sed labrum interdum ]irofundius bilobum ; articulus pa/jwrum hasilaris paulo brevior extus haud 

 excavatus, et ultimus in maxilluribus minus sccuriformi-inflatus ; ct ligula antice biloba. Pedes 

 elongati : tibiis minutissime ruguloso-spinulosis : tarsis heteromeris ; posticis articulo prinio 

 louKiusculo. 



■'O' 



The genus Blajis, so widely distributed throughout the Old World, is almost 

 too familiar to render observations concerning it necessary, — the large and elon- 

 gated, though somewhat thickened, bodies of the various insects which compose it, 

 their uniformly black hue and very faintly striated, or almost imsculptm-cd (though 

 occasionally Avrinklcd), upper surfaces, ia conjunction with the unusual length of 

 then- legs, and the acuminated extremities both of then* elytra (especially in the 

 female sex) and of the terminal joint of their (sub-apically moniliform) antennse, 

 being at once sufficient to separate it from the allied groups. The species, like 

 the rest of the Melasomes, are of a darkling nature, residing either in cellars and 

 stables (and other damp spots in the immediate vicinity of dwelling-houses) or 

 else in caves and beneath stones in the ojicn country, — wliich last however is 

 more particvilarly the case in southern latitudes and in maritime districts. They are 

 for the most part very gregarious, and emit more or less of an unpleasant odom*. 



386. Blaps gages. 

 B. atra minute et obsolete punctulata, labro profunde bilobo, prothorace convexo antice leviter dilatato, 

 elytris subellipticis basi truneatis, antcnnis pedibusque longioribus. 

 Fcem., elytri singuli apice valde acuminate, et abdominis segmcnto secundo in pai'te media fasciculo 



pilorum ferrugineo instructo. 

 Var. p. paulo minor, prothorace antice vix dilatato. 

 Long. Corp. lin. 12-17. 



