194 CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 



together it seems to approach nearer, j^rimd facie, to the T. mixtus of 

 Mulsant, from Syria, than to any other, perhaps, with which I have 

 compared it ; but the clearJy -deiined sculptiirc of its elytra, which 

 have their ten striae broad, unconfused, and sharply expressed and 

 their tubercles weU marked and isolated (the alternate series more- 

 over differing less considerably in size from the remainder), will, apart 

 from the structure of its tibia; and numerous minor characters, readily 

 separate it both from that insect and from others to which it is in some 

 respects allied. My unique specimen was captured, from beneath a 

 stone, at a low elevation in the Barranco do Passo Alto, near S*" Cruz 

 of TenerifFe. I have little doubt that it is the species referred by 

 M. Brulle' to the T. hisjiidus, F. — from which however it is totally 

 distinct. 



Fam. 27. MELOLONTHID^. 



Genus 131. OOTOMA. 



Blanchard, Cat. Col. Ent. 120 (1850). 



The present genus is regai'ded by Lacordaire as a mere Section of 

 Pachydenm, in which the froyit tarsi only (instead of the anterior /o«r) 

 have their second and third joints dilated in the males ; nevertheless, 

 since he seems to have overlooked one or two of its most important 

 features, which equally escaped the notice of M. Blanchard (by whom 

 the group was enunciated, from Messrs. Webb and Bcrthelot's Cana- 

 rian types which still exist at the Jardin des Plantes), I think it may 

 be desirable to retain it as distinct, more particularly since the 

 insects which compose it form a small geographical assemblage appa- 

 rently peculiar to these islands. The structural character to which 

 I especially allude, and which I am not aware obtains in Pachydema 

 proper, is the immense sexual difference in the development of the last 

 joint of the maxillary palpi — which is more or less greatly enlarged 

 in the males, but comjjaratively cylindric in the females. With re- 

 spect to its feet. Prof. Lacordaire is not quite correct when he says 

 " les tarses anterieurs sont simples et sans brasses de poUs chez la 

 seule de leurs femeUes qui soit connue " ; for the front pair have in 

 both sexes their four basal articulations clothed beneath with short 

 densely-set seta; (though of course less so in the females) ; whilst 

 even the intermediate pair have their second and third joints (though 

 scarcely, in the female sex, theii' first and fourth) sparingly setose. So 

 that the generic diagnosis of Ootoma requires revising, as regards the 

 sexual peculiarities both of its feet and palpi. 



M. Blanchard was clearly wrong (as indeed Prof. Lacordaire has 



