56 CAXARIAN C'ULEOPTERA. 



elytral interstice, must serve to characterize it. So far as I have 

 observed hitherto, it appears to be confined to the mountains of 

 Grand Canary, — where, during April 1858, I took it, in tolerable 

 abundance, in one of the lofty Finals of the district of Tarajana, above 

 the village of San Bartolome. 



S6. Cratognathus micans. 



C. praecedenti similis, sed jiaulo minor, in utroque scxu fere tequaliter 

 nitidus, prothorace ad latera paulo magis sinuato, elytris antice 

 paulo magis truncatis (ergo vix brevioribus) , interstitii septimi 

 punctis obsoletis, podibus paulo pallidioribus. 



Var. /3. Sancto'-crucis [an species distincta ?J. Minus politus, capite 

 paulo minore, prothorace basi paulo minus subito angustiore (ergo 

 angulis vix minus rectis), utrinque profundius foveolato, elytris 

 profundius striatis, ad apicem ipsum plerumque j^aulo magis acu- 

 mihatis. — Long, coi-p. lin. 4^-5. 



Cratognathus micans, JFolL, Aim. Nat. Hist. (3rd ser.) xi. 215 (1863). 

 Harpalus vii-idus, Hartion/ [nee Di'J., necFab.^, Geolog. VerhciUn.Lanz. 

 unci Fuert. 140. 



Habitat in ins. Gomera, prope San Sebastian vulgaris ; sed var. ft ad 

 Teneriifam solam pertinet, circa urbem Sanetae Crucis pra^dominans. 



The rather smaller size and almost equally polished surface of the 

 two sexes of this species, in conjunction with the absence* of the 

 punctures at the apex of the seventh interval of its elytra, will suf- 

 fice to separate it from the C. fortmiatus, to which it is nearly allied. 

 It is possible that the form which I have regarded as the var. ft may 

 be specifically distinct ; nevertheless its differential characters (al- 

 though constant) are so minute that I think it safer to treat it as an 

 insular modification peculiar to Tenerifi'e. As may be gathered from 



fei-red to was the H. disfingi(endus, Dufts., which abounds at Madeira but wliieh 

 has not yet been observed at the Canaries ; and that it was probably entered on the 

 strength of an example brought by Mr. Webb (along with the Scarifes abhreviatus 

 and perhaps also the Harpalus conse77tanfns) from Funchal. 



* Perhaps they should rather be called obsolete (as indeed I liave done in the 

 diagnosis) than absent; for out of .33 specimens of the typical micajis which I 

 have just examined, I find these subapical punctules present in s/.r; nevertheless 

 in 64 of the Teneriffan " var. /3 " there is (as in the C. (smulus) no appearance of 

 them whatsoever. In the fortiinattfs, on the other hand, in which I have mentioned 

 them as a diagnostic feature, they are well developed in all (32 in number) wliich 

 I have yet seen : so that the six in which they exist out of the 117 micajts may be 

 regarded as exceptional, or even accidental. It is scarcely necessary to allude to 

 the A. solifarucs (which has so many characters of its own that it could not be 

 confounded with either of these more nearly allied forms); but in 12 examples 

 of it which I have carefully overhauled, the punctules are always visible, — only 

 smaller than thone of the forfunatus, still more apical, and often somewhat indis- 

 tinct or confused. 



