INSECTA MADERENSIA. 537 



Vw. /3. with the humeral angles of the elytra most obscurely fuscescent, — rarely sufficiently so 

 however as to be considered maculated. Aniemia and let/s altogether a little paler. 



I believe that the present species is correctly referred to the A. tristis of 

 Schmidt ; though it is remarkable that the typical state for these islands coincides 

 with the extreme dark variety of Europe (the A. fenestratus of Dejean's Catalogue, 

 and the tristis, var. y. of La Ferte's Monograph), — which obtains principally 

 throughout northern France, in England, and in some parts of Spain. Very faint 

 indications of a humeral patch are occasionally however to be traced, — the var. /3. 

 of La Fert^ (though more obscure in colour) and of the above diagnosis ; but the 

 normal Eiu'opean form, in which a postmedial fascia is likewise develojoed, would 

 seem in Madeira to be enthely unknown. It is an insect of very wide geogra- 

 phical range, being recorded in Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, Georgia, Sicily, 

 France, England, Spain and Algeria. It is abimdant in the alpine regions of 

 Madeira, occurring beneath stones on the grassy mountain-slopes, from about an 

 altitude of 3000 feet to the summits of the loftiest peaks. In most of the central 

 districts I have taken it in profusion, during the autumnal and winter months, — 

 especially on the Paul da Serra, the Fateiras, the Lombo Grande, and on all the 

 upland ridges from the Potiso and the Fonte das Moyas to the Pico da Lagoa and 

 the Pico dos Arieros. In our own country it is attached exclusively, so far as I 

 am aware, to low sandy spots along the southern shores, — under which cu-cum- 

 stances I have captxu'ed it near the Isle of Portland, in May and June. 



Genus 181. XYLOPHILUS. (Tab. XIII. fig. 3.) 

 (Bonelli) LatreiUe, Fam. Nat. 383 (1825). 



Corpm parvTim, ovatum : capite subtriangulari ; oculis subovatis : prothorace elytris angustiore, (in 

 specie nostra) subquadrato-transverso : alls amplis. Antenna robustse, apicem versus sensim 

 incrassatse (in typicis, articulo primo brevi baud robusto, secundo brevissimo, ultimo elongato- 

 ovato ; sed in specie Maderensi), articulo primo robusto, secundo vix minore breviore, ultimo 

 robusto oblique truncato. Instrunienta cibaria fere ut in Anthico. Pedes longiusculi, graciles : 

 femoribus posticis plerumque incrassatis, sed in nostra simplicibus : tibiis ad apicem, nisi fallor, 

 baud calcaratis : iarsis heteromeris, subtus breviter pubescentibus ; articulo primo in miticis 

 longiusculo crasso, in intermediis elongato, in jiosticis longissimo eylindrico; antepenultimo in 

 omnibus subtus producto, penultimo minutissimo simplici, ultimo longiusculo unguiculis parvis 

 simplicibus munito. 



Of the present genus we have, so far as I am aware, but a single representative 

 in the Madeira Islands ; and even that one is anything but typical, since it differs 

 very decidedly from the normal species, not only in the structure of its antennal 

 and tarsal joints, but likewise in the form of its head and prothorax. In 

 Xylophilus proper the basal articulation of the antennae is usually short and 

 Render, the following, or following two, extremely abbreviated, and the apical one 



3z 



