CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 139 



subreeto et denticulo medio acuto minutissimo armato, angulis an- 

 ticis vix incrassatis ; elytris ad basin prothorace baud latioribus, 

 pone basin rotnndatis, inde ad apicem leviter acutioribus et ad api- 

 cem panlo dilutioribus ; antennis pedibusque nifo-testaceis. — Long. 

 Corp. lin. vix 1^. 



Habitat TenerifFam sylvaticam, inter muscos et humi snb foliis 

 marcidis in laiiretis ad Las Mercedes et Agua Garcia repertus. 



Until I bad examined accurately this curious insect I bad failed 

 entirely to identify it with Gryptophagus, — its convex, ellij)tic, ap- 

 terous body and comparatively shining surface, in conjunction with 

 its thickened limbs and subconical prothorax (which is wide behind 

 — where it is of the same breadth as the base of the elytra — and 

 bisinuated along its posterior margin, causing the hinder angles to be 

 slightly produced), giving it a. primd facie appearance totally distinct 

 from any of the representatives of that genus with which I am ac- 

 quainted, l^evertheless, after a careful dissection of it, and a consi- 

 deration of the various details of its structure, I cannot detect a single 

 character, apart from the above-mentioned external ones, to justify 

 its entire isolation. Its oral organs indeed are all of them precisely 

 identical with those of the normal Cryptophagi, its hinder male-tarsi 

 are tetramerous, and its prothorax when closely inspected will be 

 seen to have its anterior angles slightly incrassated into the ordinary 

 oblique ridge, and to be armed at about the middle of its lateral mar- 

 gins with a very minute denticle. Yet, whilst thus agreeing in every 

 essential point with Cryptophagus, its outward characters cannot but 

 stamp it as a most anomalous member of that Group, — since (in ad- 

 dition to its very peculiar fades) the completely apterous state of its 

 body and the somewhat shortened first joint of its feet (the two 

 anterior pair of which are densely pilose beneath) are featiu'es of 

 considerable importance. Its under-segments are purely on the 

 Cryptophagus-type, except that the mesosternum is more evidently 

 channeled. 



The M. ellipticus is apparently extremely rare, and confined (so far 

 as I have observed hitherto) to the sylvan regions of Teneriffe. I 

 have taken it sparingly, under fallen leaves, at the Agua Garcia ; and 

 (rather more commonly), amongst wet moss and vegetable detritus, 

 on the steep sloping bank immediately to the left of the small water- 

 fall in the wood of Las Mercedes. 



Genus 100. LEUCOHIMATIUM. 



Rosenhauer, Die Thiere Andahis. 179 (1866). 

 Corpus elongatum, angustum, parallclum ; capite sat magno ; protho- 



