546 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



Porta Sancto occurrens, qua mense Aprili a.d. 1848 duo specimina in clivis graminosis sub 

 lapidibus collegi. 



X. similar to the X. formicarum, but much narrower and more parallel (being scarcely at all expanded 

 behind, like that species), and of a rather clearer hue; its abdomen with the edges and apex of 

 even the basal segments more or less rufo-testaceous or ferruginous ; and its antenn<e distinctly 

 shorter (not being at all longer than the head and prothorax). 



The only three specimens of this very distinct species which I have hitherto seen 

 were captm-ed l)y myself, from heueath stones, — two on the grassy moimtain-slopes 

 of Porto Santo, in April 18i8, and the other on the ascent of the Pico d'Arrihentao, 

 above Funchal, during the spring of the same year. 



Genus 186. HOMALOTA. 



Mannerheim, Brachel. 73 (1831). 



Cojyws parvum, elongatum, lineare (rarius postice acuminatum), depressum : capite exserto, rotundato 

 basi truucato : prothurace antice truncato, postice subrotundato : alls plerumque aniplis : abdo- 

 mine marginato, srepius lineari sed intei-dum apicem versus attenuato. Antenna ad oculorum 

 marginem internum insertse, capite prothoraceque (interdum multo) longiores, apicem versus plus 

 minusve scnsim incrassatfe (in maribus sxpe validiorcs), articulis tribus baseos rehquis paulo 

 longioribus, inter se a^qualibus. Labium apice rotundatum. Mundibida muticEC. Maxilla 

 bilobse : lobo externa apice pubescente : interno huic paulo brcviore, ad apicem internum oblique 

 emarginato, per sinum spinulis brevibus ciliato. Palpi maxillares elongati, articulo primo minuto, 

 secundo et tertio clongatis subicqualibus (hoc apice incrassato), ultimo parvo subulato : labiales 

 articulo primo magno subcylludrico, secundo brcviore, ultimo huic longiore tenuiore subulato. 

 Mentum transversum, apice vix emarginatum. Ligula brevis, apice bifida lobis divergentibus ; 

 paraglossis obsoletis. Pedes longiusculi, graciles : tarsis anticis 4-, posterioribus 5-articulatis ; 

 posticis articulis quatuor baseos subrequalibus. 



The immense genus Homcdota, 134 members of which are described in Erich- 

 son's Genera et Species Staphijl'morum, contains a quantity of small and closely 

 allied insects of very difficult determination, and principally abiuidant in European 

 latitudes. They may be kno'\\-n from the kiniU-ed forms by then- short and bifid 

 ligula (the lobes of which, as in nearly all the genera of the Aleocharides except 

 Xenomma, diverge at their extremity), and by theu' quacU-iarticulate anterior feet, 

 — which have all the joints except the ultimate one, in each pair respectively, sub- 

 equal. The first of the representatives characterized below would appear to be of 

 a rather aberrant structure, having its elytra unusually abbreviated and its body 

 apterous : nevertheless in all other respects it retains the elements of Uomalota 

 proper. Amongst so large an assemblage it is not surprising that several modes 

 of life should be indicated ; some of the species occui-ring amongst damp vegetable 

 refuse and in the excrement of cattle, others in grassy spots of exposed mountain 

 districts, whilst a few are of a strictly subaquatic natui-e, and reside, like Calo- 



