CASTAKIAN COLEOPTEBA. .219 



§ I. ProtJiOiXuv plus minus (i. e. vel omnitio, vel in parte majore, vel 

 versus angulos soJos postlcos') palUdus. 



342. Attains ruficoUis. 

 Attalus ruflcoUis, WolL, loc. cit. 428 (1862). 



Habitat Teneriffam, ad flores vulgaris ; ab ora maritima usque ad 

 8000' s. m. ascendit. In Palma est minor, depauperatus, tibiis tar- 

 sisque plus minus testaceis, varietatem (="var. /3. pauperculus," 

 mihi) efficiens. 



The present Attalus and the following one are the universal species 

 of Teneriffe, aboimding on flovrers from the sea-level to an elevation 

 of at least 8000 feet. The A. rufieollis may be known by its bright- 

 red prothorax, which is usually quite immaculate. The specimens 

 from the higher altitudes are generally a Kttle more densely punc- 

 tured and senescent, and have their minute wncZer-pile (of short, de- 

 cumbent, subcinereous haii's) more evidently developed; but they 

 merge gradually into the others as we descend into the lower districts. 

 The " var. /3 " appears to be only a small state peculiar to Palma, in 

 which the tibiae and tarsi and the base of the antennae have a ten- 

 dency to be testaceous : I captured it high up in the Barranco da 

 Agua, as also in the Barranco de Galga, and (in a state approaching 

 nearer to the Teneriffan one) at the Banda. In Teneriffe it seems 

 to occur universally ; and it has also been taken in that island by 

 Mr. Gray, Dr. Crotch, and the Barao do Castello de Paiva. 



343. Attalus peUucidus. 



Pecteropus peUucidus, Woll, Ins. Mad. 247 (note) (1854). 

 Attalus peUucidus, Id., loc. cit. 429 (1862). 



Habitat Teneriffam, vulgaris, in iisdem locis ac prsecedens. 



The only important character which separates the present Attalus 

 from the preceding one is, that its prothorax, instead of being bright- 

 red, is (like the rest of the surface) black, with merely a small portion 

 at either posterior angle (and sometimes the basal margin itself, though 

 very narrowly) of a somewhat pellucid yellow. I can detect no other 

 differential feature (except that the surface is usually a trifle more 

 senescent) ; and I might therefore have been inclined perhaps to re- 

 gard it as a variety of the other, had I been able to discover the least 

 trace of a passage between the two. But since both of them are 

 equally diffused over Teneriffe, independently of elevation, and since 

 in an extensive series now before me, collected in ten or twelve dif- 

 ferent (and distant) localities, each is equally constant, I have iio 

 option but to treat them as distinct. Like the last species, it was 



