168 CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 



neons and very densely punctured upper surface (which has only the 

 disc of its pronotum, and an obcordate elytral space behind the 

 scutellum, highly polished and impunctate), will at once sepai'ate it 

 from the other Canarian Saprini. The only two specimens which I 

 have yet seen were captured by myself in Tencriffe, — one of them 

 near S'" Cruz, and the other at a comparatively high elevation in the 

 wood of Las Mercedes. 



280. Saprinus osculans, n. sp. 



S. subcyaneo-niger, supra convexus, vix subopacus, dense rugoso- 

 punctatus ; prothorace in disco late elytrisque in spatio communi 

 obcordato pone scutellum necnon per marginem ipsissimum pos- 

 ticum politis ; stria frontali subobsoleta ; elytris singulis stria sutu- 

 rah antice paulo abbreviata necnon quinque obliquis abbreviatis (in- 

 ternis tcnuibus subpunctulatis, et secundA, vel tertia dorsali, brevi 

 fere obsoleta) impressis ; prosterno sublaevi, lineis antice paulo di- 

 varicatis ; mesosterno paree pnnctato ; tibiis anticis extus dentieii- 

 latis, posterioribus biseriatim spinulosis ; tarsis (sed praesertim an- 

 ticis) piceis. — Long. corp. lin. 2^. 



Habitat in Fuerteventura, semel tantum captus. 



Closely allied to the preceding species ; from which, however, it 

 differs in being smaller and less evidently cyaneous, in the sculptured 

 portion of its upper surface being rather less densely punctured, and 

 therefore not quite so opake (the polished jirothoracic space more- 

 over being larger, and occupying -in its middle the entire length of 

 the pronotum), in its sutural line being less abbreviated in front, in 

 its having at leant Jive oblique striise (instead of only two) developed 

 at the base of its elytra (the inner ones of which are minutely punc- 

 tured, but the second nevertheless, or third " dorsal " one, short and 

 subobsolete), in its presternum being almost impunctate and with 

 the lateral lines less divergent in front, in its mesosternum being 

 less closely and less deeply punctured, and in its anterior tibiae being 

 more powerfully spined. 



Judging from de Marseul's diagnosis and figure, the S. osculans 

 would perhaps agree better with the detersus (from the south of 

 France, Spain, Portugal, Algeria, Senegal, ifcc.) than with any other 

 species ; nevertheless it has no indication of the small additional 

 polished space between the second and third dorsal stria? (at the base 

 of the elytra), or of the less-defined one at the shoulders, which 

 characterize that insect ; and, moreover, in the description of the 

 S. detersus no mention is made of the obscure cyaneous tint which is 

 very traceable on the oscidaus. Tt is hitherto unique, a single ex- 

 ample having been capturcrl by myself in Fuerteventura. 



