570 INSECTA MADERENSIA. 



taken it plentifully at the Ribeiro Frio (along tlic edges of the Levada) in July ; as 

 also in the lofty region of the Lombo das Vacas in June, and even, occasionally, in 

 the chestnut-woods of Santa ibina, — the lowest elevation at which I have liitherto 

 observed it. As already stated, it is mdely distributed thi-oughout Europe ; never- 

 theless it does not appear to be any^vhere very abundant*. 



Genus 194. TACHINUS. 

 Gravenhorst, Col. Micropt. 135 (1802). 



Corpus fere ut lu Tachyporo, scd plcramque majus, convexius et latius : capite, prothorace eli/trisqm- 

 glaberrimis : mesosterno modo (ut in specie Maderensi) carinato, modo simplici ; scutello magno : 

 alls SEepius amplis. Antenna sub frontis margine inserts, capite prothoraceque paulo lon- 

 giores, filiforuics vcl apicem versus leviter subiiicrassatpe. Instrumenta cibaria fere ut in Tachy- 

 poro, scd maxillarum lobus externus rotundatior ; et palpi maxillares filiformes, articulo ultimo 

 majore (baud subulate), penultimo ssepius breviusculo. Pedes breviusculi validi : tibiis omnibus 

 spinulosis: (arsis 5-articulatis, articulis quatuor bascos longitudine paulatim dccresccntibus ; 

 anticis modo in utroquc scxu (ut in specie nostra) simplicibus, modo in mare dilatatis ; pusteri- 

 oribus articulo primo longiusculo. 



The genus Tachinus approaches very closely to Taclujporus, and it must be 

 admitted that the essential characters of the two are not in every instance suffi- 

 ciently distinct. Still, there are slight differences of contour and structure which 

 a practised eye will seldom fail to detect. Thus, the generally larger, broader, 

 and proportionably shorter bodies of the TacUni, in conjimction vnih their fre- 

 (^uently keeled mesosternum, their somewhat less elongated feet (the anterior pair 

 of which are occasionally, as in the Madeu-an representative, simple in both sexes), 

 the rounded outer lobe of then- masillaj, and, above all, thcu- filiform palpi, — the 

 maxillary paii- ha\-ing the terminal joint not subulate (and, moreover, the penul- 

 timate one comparatively abbreviated), — are the principal points which serve, 

 when combined, to separate them from the latter. 



443. Tachinus Silplioides. 



T. niger convexus, protboracis limbo, elytrorum sutura, apice et vitta submarginali ni siugulo positii, 



antennarum basi pedibusque testaceis. 



Long. Corp. lin. \\. 



Staphylinus Silphoides, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. ii. 684 (1767). 



Tachinus suturalis et marginalls, Grav. Col. Micropt. 144 et 192 (1802). 



Silplioides, Steph. ///. Brif. Ent. v. 194 (1832). 



, Erich. Oen. et Spec. Staph. 245 (1839). 



* In England it is of the greatest rarity, — where it was fii-st discovered by the Eev. W. Kirby, at 

 Holme, on the coast of Norfolk, in 1807. Since that period, the only recorded instance of its captm-e is 

 in LincolushLre, — where a single specimen was taken, during the siunmer of 1853, by F. W. Hutton, Esq., 

 at Spridlington near Market Kaisin. 



