96 CANARIAN COLEOPTEEA. 



Fam. 8. SILPHID^. 



Genus 61. CATOPS. 

 Paykull, Fna Suee. i. 342 (1798). 



157. Catops putridus, n. sp. 



C. ovalis, fuscus, minute pubescens ; prothorace convexo, ad latera 

 subaequaliter rotundato (/. e. antice et postice sequaliter angustiore), 

 basi truncate, angulis posticis vix productis ; elytris obsoletissime 

 substriatis necnon stria suturali profunda in utroque impressis ; 

 antennis ad basin pedibusque fusco-testaceis, illis ad apieem ob- 

 Bcurioribus sat clavatis. — Long. corp. lin. 1^. 



Habitat Palmam, sub coi-tice laxo putrido in Barranco de Galga 

 Maio exeunte a.d. 1858 semel tan turn lectus. 



The only specimen which I have seen of this distinct Catops was 

 captured by myself from beneath the rotting bark of a tree towards 

 the head of the Barranco de Galga, in the north-west of Palma, on 

 the 31st of May 1858. It has somewhat the appearance, at first 

 sight, of the European C. velo.v ; but is rather smaller and more oval 

 than that insect (being nearly equalhj narrowed at either extremity), 

 with its prothorax (which is regularly rounded at the sides, truncated 

 at the base, and has the hinder angles scarcely at all produced) less 

 developed, with its elytra obscurely substriated, with its posterior 

 legs shorter, and with its antennae more clavate at their apex. 



Genus 62. SILPHA. 

 Linnseus, Srjst Nat. ii. 569 (1767). 

 (Subgenus Heterotemna, Woll.) 



The Teneriffan SUphce are moulded on a rather peculiar type, and 

 might indeed be almost regarded as genericaUy distinct from the 

 more northern members of the group. They are remarkable, inter 

 alia, for their rather large size, apterous bodies, and exceedingly 

 elongated limbs, for their antennae being slender*, hardly at all 



* This great length and slenderness of the antennae applies to both of the Ca- 

 narian Silphis, though perliaps a trifle more so to the simpUcicor7iis than to the 

 figurata. Nevertheless M. Brulle makes it to be distinctive of the former only ; 

 for, speaking of the simplicicortus, he adds : " le caractere le plus saillant de cet 

 insecte consiste dans la forme de ses antennes, qui sont plus longues et plus 

 greles que dans aucune autre espece." If however we turn to his Plate, we there 

 find that the antennte of the fyurafa are merely dotted in,— thus indicating that 

 he drew out liis diagnosis of that insect from a single example in which the an- 

 tennae were broken off. 



