INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



523 



structural difference indeed would seem to reside in the terminal articulation of its 

 palpi, — which in the maxillary pair is somewhat narrower and more fusiform, and 

 in the labial ones considerably more acuminated, than is there the case ; neither 

 of which however can be deemed of sufiicient importance to cause its isolation*. 

 Widely separated as they usually are in every system of arrangement, I cannot but 

 believe that our present genus (together with several of its allies, which do not con- 

 cern us here) possesses a slight (though decided) aifinity with the MehjridcB, — an 

 hvpothesis which the flower-infesting habits of the two families, and many of their 

 external features, in conjunction with the almost identical formation of their very 

 peculiar menta, would go far to support. Fecteropns in fact, especially as regards 

 one of the species (the P. rostratus), in the elongation of its head and mandibles, 

 as well as in the shape of its eyes, the implantation of its antennse, and ia the 

 details of its maxUlse and palpi, displays much in common with Stenaxis : — and 

 hence the views of Lamarck, who placed the Trachelia ia juxtaposition with 

 Dasytes, may not have been altogether erroneous, I have not succeeded in 

 detecting more than a single representative of the (Eclemericlce in the Madeira 

 Islands!, which in a country where flowers are so numeroixs and sunshine pre- 

 dominant is rather extraordinary. 



* It may be useful to state that Stenaxis is distinguished from (Edemera proper, priiicipally, by the 

 femora of its males not being clarate, and by its eyes being obloug aud of moderate size (instead of 

 rounded and large). In its simple thighs and general contour it approaches Anoncodes ; but that group 

 has the antenua; of its male sex 12-articidate, its eyes Idduey-shaped, the apex of its labial palpi seciu-i- 

 form (whereas in our insect they are acuminated), and the spurs of its front tibise unequal, — one being 

 robust, and the other either nearly or altogether obsolete (whilst in Stenaxis the two are not only inva- 

 riably present, but are of the same magnitude). In colouring and some other respects it even assimilates 

 Asclera ; but the Asclerw, apart from minor differences, have their head unproduced, and the terminal 

 joint of their maxillary palpi greatly developed and seciu-iform, — a character which obtains also in 

 Chrysantliia, where moreover (as in Prohosca, CJiitona and Stenostoma) the antenuas spring comparatively 

 at a distance from the eyes, and the head (at any rate as regards the last two of them) is even stiU more 

 elongated tlian in Stenaxis. 



t Although the Stenaxis Lowei is apparently the only member of the GEdemeridce in the Madeiran 

 group, a new and very beautiful Diti/his has been lately conununicated to me (by T. S. Leacoek, Esq. of 

 Funehal) from the distant rocks of the Salvages,— the description of which will not be considered here 

 out of place. 



Ditylus fulvus, Woll. 



D. elongatus cylindricus fulvo-testaceus (oculis tibiariunque calcariis soils nigris) imdique crebre pimctatus 

 et densissitne pubescens, prothorace subcordato leviter canaUculato in disco utriuque bifoveolato, 

 antennis apicem versus tarsisque ferrugineis. 



Long. Corp. liu. 6. 



Habitat in insulis remotis " Salvages " dictis, a Dom. Leacoek repertus. 



D. elongated, narrow and cylindrical, pale fulvo-testaceous (the eyes, which are large and oblong, and the 

 tibial spurs, being alone black), closely pimctiu-ed all over, and most densely clothed with a decum- 

 bent folvous pubescence. Prothorax subcordate (being narrowed posteriorly, and vridest just behind 

 its front margin) ; with a Ughtly-impressed central channel, and with two large rounded fovese 

 (placed longitudinally) on either side of its disk. Elytra rather shorter than the abdomen. An- 

 tennm (except at their base), and the tarsi, of a slightly obscurer colour, — being somewhat fei-ni- 



3x2 



