INSECTA MADERENSIA. 533 



that in the palest specimens an ohscurer portion along the suture, an ill-defined 

 triangular cloud at the base, and a sublateral dash towards either side (repre- 

 senting the transverse medial band), are more or less present on the elytra, and 

 there are often the rudiments of a patch on the prothoracic disk ; — whilst even in 

 the extreme varieties, where the whole of these are so increased in size as to 

 occupy nearly the entu-e surface, there are generally faint indications of foiu- 

 rufescent elytral blotches, which at once enable us to identify them with the rest. 

 It is abundant in flowers throughout most of the islands of the group, during the 

 spring and early summer months, — esj^ecially in sunny spots of low and inter- 

 mediate altitudes. I have taken it on the Illieo de Fora in March ; in Porto 

 Santo, in the utmost profusion, in April, — particularly in sheltered clefts issuing 

 from the southern edges of the Campo de Baxo ; on the two northern Dezertas in 

 May and June ; and in Madeira proper (at the Ribeiro Frio) in July. Upon the 

 whole, the paler states would appear to preponderate in Madeka, the darker ones 

 in Porto Santo, and the brightly-coloured ones on the smaller rocks ; nevertheless, 

 though I believe this to be true on a large scale, they are all occasionally to be 

 found intermixed. 



Fam. 54. ANTHICID^. 



Genus 180. ANTHICUS. 



PajkuU, Fm Suec. i. 253 (1798). 



Corpus parvum, plus minusve elongatum, sfepe pictum : capite subquadrato-rotundato, pedunculato ; 

 oculis plerumque subovatis : prothorace elytris angustiore, postice constiicto : alis amplis. An- 

 tenrue, labrum, mandihulce et palpi fere ut in genera prsecedente. Maxilla bilobse, lobis valde 

 pubescentibus ; interno brevi. Mentum transverso-subquadratum, antice vix emarginatuni. 

 Ligula membranacea parva, apice leviter acuminata. Pedes lougiusculi, graciles : tibiis ad apicem 

 internum bicalcaratis [posticis \exs,\xs, apicem externum in maribus intcrdum compresso-dilatatis): 

 tarsis heteromeris ; posterioribus (sed prsesertim posticis) articulo primo elongate ; penultimo in 

 omnibus profunde bilobo, ultimo longiusculo unguicuUs simplicibus munito. 



The Anthici are \ridely distributed over the world, — nearly seventy species 

 moreover being recorded as European. They may be known by their small size 

 and pedunculated heads, by their narrow prothoraces, Avhich are always more or 

 less constricted behind, by the deeply bUobed penultimate point of their tarsi, and 

 by theii' simple claws. They are found principally under stones, or at the roots of 

 grass on the dry ground. In the Madeira Islands they are more particularly 

 attached to the exposed mountain-slopes, where they may frequently be observed 

 congregating in vast numbers l^eneath the large basaltic blocks (to which they 

 seem to have the power of adhering very tenaciously) in lofty altitudes. In such 

 situations I have detected the minute A. tristis by multitudes, which on being 

 exposed to the air were but seldom detached from theh* positions by the violence 



