184 CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 



The common European A. minutus (which occurs in Madeira and 

 Porto Santo, and which I have also taken at Mogadore, on the oppo- 

 site coast of Morocco) is probably universal in these islands, though 

 from its small size it is very liable to escape observation. Hitherto, 

 however, I have myself met with it only in Fuerteventura, Grand 

 Canary, Teneriffe, and Palma ; but I have received specimens which 

 were found by Dr. Crotch in Gomera. My Fuerteventuran examples 

 are from the Rio Palmas ; and the Teneriffan ones from Orotava, the 

 Agua Garcia, and Ycod el Alto. 



Fam. 24. THORICTID^. 



Genus 126. THORICTUS. 

 Germar, in Silb. Rev. Ent. ii. 2. 15 (1834). 



297. Thorictus gigas. 



T. quadrato-oblongus, rufo-pieeus, nitidus, minute et parce asperato- 

 punctatus, subtiliter fulvescenti-pubescens ; prothorace brevi, 

 transverso, in disco postico convexo, ad latera valde rotundato 

 dilutiore vix subpellucido, angailis posticis obtusis ; elytris piceis, 

 ad humeros calloso-incrassatis et ibidem obtuse prominentibus, in 

 disco valde convexis, ad basin ipsissimam Hnea media sinuatti ter- 

 minatis necnon utrinque breviter longitudinaliter bicostatis ; pedi- 

 bus longiusculis. — Long. corp. lin. l|-vix Ig. 



Thorictus gigas, Woll., Ann. Nat. Hist. (3rd series) ix. 439 (1862). 



Habitat Canariam Grandem, in formicarum nidis rarissimus. 



The large size of this gigantic Thorictus and its relatively shorter 

 and more transverse prothorax (which is slightly subpeUucid towards 

 the edges and has its posterior angles obtuse), combined with its 

 greatly prominent nodiform shoulders, the very distinct biflexuose 

 costa with which the central portion of the extreme base of its elytra 

 is terminated, its conspicuous subhumeral plicae, and its comparatively 

 elongated legs, will readily characterize it. The punctules of its upper 

 surface, although small and distant, are sharply defined and somewhat 

 asperate (the anterior edge of each being a little raised) ; and they 

 are much denser on the humeral callosity than elsewhere. It is appa- 

 rently of the greatest rarity, and confined (so far as I have observed 

 hitherto) to Grand Canary — in which island I have taken it sparingly, 

 from out of the nests of a large brown Ant (a Formica) on the moun- 

 tains above San Mateo, as well as on the northern side of the Bar- 

 ranco at Aldea de San Nicholas. It is about the size of the T. Ger- 

 mari, Lucas, from Algeria (of which a specimen has been communi- 



