CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 51 



The only specimens which I have seen of this singular insect are 

 five which were captured by myself, from beneath stones, in the upper 

 part of the wooded region of El Golfo, on the west of HieiTO, during 

 our visit to that island in February 1858. It offers so many pecu- 

 liarities, that I need only refer to the diagnosis ; but its comparatively 

 convex prothorax and elytra (the former of which is almost free from 

 impressions at its base and has its posterior angles right angles, whilst 

 the latter are very lightly striated, with their discal punctiu^es in- 

 distinct and sometimes obsolete), in conjunction with its exceedingly 

 short hind legs (for a Pterostichus), may be especially noticed. Its 

 sexes, too (barring, of coiu'se, the dilatation of its male-tarsi), are 

 similar, both in outline and surface. 



Genus 26. AMARA. 

 Bonelli, Ohservat. Ent. i. (1809). 



(Subgenus Leiocnemis, Zimm.) 



80. Amara versuta. 



A. brcviter ovata, nigro-picea, a^neo-micans, convexa ; prothorace 

 brevi, transverse, ad latera marginato et sequaliter rotundato, basi 

 vix punctate (interdxun impunctato) sed utrinque foveis duabus 

 (interna sc. majore longiore, sed externa parva, minus profunda, 

 subrotundata) notato, postice in medio transversim impresso ; ely- 

 tris paulo dilutioribus (fusco-piceis), crenato-striatis ; antennis, 

 palpis pedibusque testaceis. — Long. corp. lin. 2-2^. 



Amara versuta, Woll, Ann. Nat. Hid. (3rd series) xi. 215 (1863). 



bifi'ons, Hartuni/ [nee Gyll.'], Geoloq. Verhdltn. Lanz. imd Fuert. 



141. 



Habitat in Lanzarota et Fuerteventura, sub lapidibus, passim. 



The present very distinct little Amara (which I am informed by 

 Dr. Schaum should be referred to the section Leiocnemis) is the only 

 one of the genus which has hitherto been observed at the Canaries, — 

 even the common European A. trivialis, which abounds at Madeira 

 and the Azores, being apparently absent from the islands of that 

 archipelago. The A. versuta, moreover, would seem to be confined to 

 Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, — where it is decidedly rare, and occurs 

 at intermediate elevations. It was found by Mr. Gray and myself in 

 the former, — principally from under stones on the grassy plain imme- 

 diately above the village of Los VaUes (de S*'' Catalina), on the road 

 to Haria ; and by M. Hartung and myself in the latter. My Fuerte- 

 venturan examples were taken, beneath corn-stack refuse, at Oliva, 

 on the 31st of March 1859. Having received it from Dr. Heer under 

 the name of " A. hifrons, GyU.," I am enabled to state for certain 



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