INSECTA MADERENSIA. 507 



Tenehrio gages, Linu. (test.Mus" Lin°) Syst.Nat.n. 676 (script., per errorem ty\^og\\,gigas) (1767) 

 Bhqjs gages, Fab. Eiit. Sgst. i. lOG (1792). 



gigas, Lat. Hist. Nat. des Crust, et Ins. x. 278 (1804). 



gages, Brulle, in Well et Berth. Hist. Nat. des lies Canar. 68 (1839). 



Habitat per oram maritimam Maderae Portusque Sancti, in cavernis tufa; vel sub lapidibus, sat 

 frequens. 



B. large, and somewhat narrow in proportion to its length, deep black, slightly shining, and most 

 minutely (but not very closely) punctulated all over (the punctures occasionally being almost 

 imperceptible). Lahrum deeply bilobed in front. Prothorax rather convex, and distinctly wider 

 anteriorly than behind. Elytra most obsoletely striated (the strife sometimes hardly perceptible) ; 

 and each produced into an acute mucro at its apex, the two together forming a bifid projection. 

 Antenna and legs elongated ; the apex of the former more or less fuscescent. 

 Female, with the extremity of the elytra more produced ; and with a tuft of ferruginous hairs at the 



base of the second segment of the abdomen beneath. 

 Var. /3. slightly smaller, and with the prothorax not quite so distinctly widened in front. 



The largest, in bulk, of all the Coleopterous members of our fauna ; and readily 

 distinguished from the B.fatadica by its more lengthened and elliptical body 

 (wliich is in proportion narrower than is there the case), by its convexer and sub- 

 cordate prothorax, less sculptured surface, and by its longer limbs. It is abundant 

 thi-oughout the Mediterranean districts of Europe and Africa, though rarer as we 

 proceed northwards ; and it occm-s likewise in the Canarian group. In the Madeira 

 Islands it is confined principally to caverns on the sea-shore,— in which positions, 

 in the vicinity of Funchal, it is at times tolerably common. It has been captm-ed 

 in profusion by Professor Heer and M. Rousset in basaltic caves at the Gorgidho, 

 as also in the Ribeiro Secco ; and I have myself met with it, sparingly, in Porto 

 Santo,— where it would appear to be somewhat scarce. Regarding its synonymy, 

 great confusion seems to have arisen through an inaccuracy of the press in the 

 Sijstema Naturce, where the word gigas was accidentally iaserted instead of gages. 

 That this lapsus tijpograpUcB however ought not to be taken advantage of, in 

 regulating the title of the species, is clear from two considerations : namely, first, 

 that Linnceus had abeady described as" Tenehrio gigas'' an insect totally difi'erent 

 (from the Brazils), — which should, alone, have been svifacient to prove the second 

 application to have been a mere misprint (more especially in so comparatively 

 small a genus as his Tenehrio) ; and, secondly, because the original specunens are 

 stiU in existence, in London, Avith ''gages" distinctly attached to them,— and it is 

 a universally admitted law that the types of any pixblished collection should take 

 the precedence over, and be allowed to correct the errors of, the work itself. 

 Indeed, were this principle once to be abandoned, it would open the way to innu- 

 merable difficulties, and necessitate changes throughout a very large proportion of 

 the entire Coleoptera. And if, further, Linnaeus' s oion admission of the mistake 

 were necessary (which however, in an instance like the present, could be scarcely 

 required), it may be supplied by a reference to his copies of the Sy sterna NaturcB, 



