INSECTA MADERENSIA. 515 



pensities (it being found almost as often under bark as stones, accommodating itself 

 to the sylvan districts) ; wliilst the Vulcanus is confined to the most exposed spots 

 near the coast, harbouring either beneath basaltic slabs on the barren cliffs, or else 

 (which is more especially the case) in the fissiu*es of the weather-beaten peaks of 

 the adjacent islands. On the extreme summit of the Dezerta Grande I have cap- 

 tured it in profusion, during the winter and spring (in company with the E. con- 

 gregatm, Kadrus cinerascens, and the Scarites ahbreviatus), — by splitting open 

 the masses of rock and tufa which had become loosened by the action of the 

 atmosphere : and on the Flat Dezerta, or Ilheo Chao, it is equally abundant. On 

 the Ilheo de Fora (the small, pyramidal, detached extremity of the Ponta Sao 

 Louren9o) it is exceedingly plentifiil,— where, on the 19th of March 1849, I took 

 a vast quantity of specimens, a little differing from those of the Dezertas (though 

 coincident with them in everything essential), and constituting two varieties, 

 which 1 have endeavoured to indicate in the above description. 



390. Helops confertus, WoU. (Tab. XII. fig. 2.) 

 H. subovatus ater (vel niger) subnitidus confertim punctulatus, prothorace ad latera rotundato 

 (angulis posticis obtusis), elytris crenato-striatis, interstitiis apicem versus seriatim tuberculatis, 

 antennis pedibusque fuscescentibus. 

 Var. a. elytris rugosis et profunda crenato-striatis. (In Madera status typicus, sub lapidibus 



corticeve arborum ubique vulgaris.) 

 Var. /3. svibpicescens (artubus dilutioribus), elytris vix rugosis et leviter crenato-striatis. (In 

 Maderd status aberrans, per regionem alpinam prsesertim occurrens.) 

 Long. Corp. lin. 5-6^. 



Habitat Maderam propriam, sub lapidibus vel cortice arborum laxo, ab ord maritima usque ad cacu- 

 mina montium copiosissime ascendens; var. f3. regionem alpinam prsesertim colit. 



H. resembling the last species, but, on the average, very much smaller ; the prothorax a little shorter 

 in proportion and not quite so convex ; and with the sides almost uniformly rounded, — being 

 scarcely at all sinuated or scooped out behind, so that the posterior angles are more obtuse. The 

 legs and antenna, also, are much less robust than those of the H. Vulcanus, and more or less 

 piceous or fuscescent. 

 Var. a. with the elytra much roughened (as in the H. Vulcanus) and deeply crenate-striated. (The 



typical state throughout Madeira, except in the highest altitudes.) 

 Var. fi. with more or less of an obscure picescent tinge, — especially on the legs and antennae, which 

 are sometimes almost ferruginous. Elytra less roughened and with the striae not so deep, — but 

 with the tubercles on the interstices behind, nevertheless, always apparent. (The aberrant state, 

 occurring principally in the loftiest altitudes of Madeira.) 



The distinctions between the present insect and the last one have been akeady 

 pointed out. It is by far the most abtindant of the Helopiclce here described, and 

 with the most extended range, — nevertheless confined exclusively, so far as I have 



3tj 2 



