158 CANARIAN COLEOPTEKA. 



utrinque et basi elytrisque in fasciis tribus necnon ad apicem den- 



sius pallido-pilosis ; antennis nigris, ad basin picesceiitibus ; pedi- 



bus piceis, tarsis pallidioribus. 

 Var'iat fasciis plus luinus obsoletis vel etiam confluentibus, pube plus 



minus albido-cinerea. 

 Mas antcnnarum articulo ultimo longissimo ensiformi. 

 Fcem. antennarum articulis O""", 10'"'' et 11'"° inter se subsequalibus 



(ultimo vix majore). — Long. corp. lin. 1-vix 2, 



Dermestes obtusus, GylL, in ScJmi. Syn. Ins. ii. 88 (1808). 



Attagenus obtusus, Lucas, Col. (VAlgerie, 239 (1849). 



abbreviatus, Hartimg, Geoloy. Verhliltn. Lanz.und Fuert. 140&141. 



Habitat Lanzarotam, Fuerteventuram et Canariam, in floribus tem- 

 pore vernali, passim. 



The excessive variability of this insect, in conjunction with the 

 very different aspect of the sexes, might well lead to the establisli- 

 ment of two or three supposed species out of it, were but a few ex- 

 amples present (and those perhaps divergent ones inter se) to form an 

 opinion from. Nevertheless, after a close examination of a very ex- 

 tensive series obtained in both Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, I am 

 bound to confess (despite the opposite appearance of the highly 

 coloured individuals and those in which the markings are obsolete) 

 that I cannot detect any character sufficient to warrant its separation 

 from the Mediterranean T. obtusus — an insect which occurs in Por- 

 tugal and in the north of Africa. It is tolerably common, on flowers, 

 in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, during the spring ; and I have also 

 taken it, though sparingly, in the low sandy district between Las 

 Palmas and the Isleta, of Grand Canary, as well as in the little 

 island of Graeiosa (off the extreme north of Lanzarote), Although 

 principally, however (when in the imago-state), of flower-infesting 

 habits, it is not entirely so ; for, like the Anthreni and other allied 

 Dermestideous forms, it will occasionally attack the skins and diled 

 remains of animals also ; and in such positions I have observed it on 

 the sea-beach near Arrecife, of Lanzarote. 



I possess Fuerteventuran specimens, communicated by Dr. Heer, 

 and which were collected in that island by M. Hartung ; so that I 

 am enabled to assert positively that it is the Attagenus abbreviatus 

 described in the volume (above cited) of the latter. Nevertheless 

 without this corroboration such would have been sufficiently evident, 

 since it is apparently the ordy Attagenus (or TcJopes, as I have re- 

 garded it) which is common to the two eastern islands of the archi- 

 pelago, — in both of which M. Hartung records the A. abbreviatus. 



Brightly coloured examples of it approach very closely at first sight 



