530 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



flying rapidly in the hot sunshine ; and, like Ileloe, counterfeiting death, when 

 captured, by contracting theii* limbs (under which circumstances, the head more- 

 over being inflexed against the chest, they hare a somewhat cylindi'ical appear- 

 ance). In the niinutitc of their oral organs, we may remark that the membranous 

 nature of their (subovate) mentum, added to theu' nearly filiform ]:)alpi and deeply- 

 cleft ligula, should be principally noticed ; and it wiR also be perceived that the 

 singularly geniculated maxUlse of Ileloe (the terminal halves of which are so 

 greatly and suddenly bent inwards, as well nigh to form a right angle with the 

 basal portion) are entirely wanting. Their claws are of a very beautiful structiu'e, 

 and constitute one of the most pleasing objects for the microscope that can 

 possibly be selected, — each being divided into two of equal length (as in Meloe), 

 the upper one of which is not only large and galeated (so as to receive the slender 

 aciculated lower one), but is powerfully pectinated on either side (merely one of the 

 rows of teeth however reaching to the extreme apex), as though to afford additional 

 defence for the inner lobe. I believe this to be universally the case in Zonitis : at 

 any rate it is so in the Madeu-an species, and in another, which I have recently 

 dissected, from Greece. 



402. Zonitis quadripxmctata. 



Z. niger pubescens, capite prothoraceque profunde punctatis, elytris pallido- rufis, aingulo maculis 



duabus (antica minore et iutcrdum obsoleta) nigrescentibus ornato, unguiculis tibiarumque 



calcariis piceo-ferrugineis. 



Var. (3. elytris vix pallidioribus immaculatis. 



Long. Corp. liii. 5-7. 



Mylabris i-piinetata, Pab. Ent. Si/st. i. ii. 89 (1702). 



, Fab. Syst. Eleu. ii. 8i (1801). 



Zonitis i-punctata, Lucas, Col. de l' Alger ie, 395 (1849). 



Habitat in floribus ]\Iadcrse australis et Portus Sancti, hinc inde non infrequeus : prope urbem Pun- 

 chalenscm olim detexit Rev'*'" Dom. Chawner, necnon in horto Loweano ad Levada egomet parce 

 depreliensi ; in Portu Sancto tamen abundat, qua mensibus Decembri a.d. 1848 et Aprili 1849 

 inter tiorcs umbellifcros plurinia specimina collcgi. 



Z. large and somewhat cylindrical, densely clothed with short pubescence, black. Head and prothurax 

 deeply punctured, and with the pubescence black; the former flattened between the eyes; the 

 latter with an ai)breviated clianncl behind. Elytra (but not the scutellum, which is black) pale 

 rufous ; each ornamented with two large blackish spots on its hinder disk, — the anterior one of 

 which is the smallest, and occasionally obsolete. Tibial spurs and tarsal clans jjiceo-ferrugiuous. 

 Var. /3. elytra entirely immaculate, and generally of a slightly paler hue. 



Apparently a scarce insect in IMadeii'a proper, though much more common in 

 Porto Santo. In the former I have observed it only towards the south of the 

 island, and principally in the Rev. R. T. Lowe's garden at the Levada ; but in the 

 latter I have twice captured it abundantly (namely, in December 1818 and April 



