CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 233 



Genus 152. MELYROSOMA. 

 Wollastou, Lis. Mad. 253 (1854). 



368. Melyrosoma costipenne. 



Melyrosoma costipenne, WolL, loc. cit. 448 (1862). 



Habitat in montibus Canariae Grandis ; ad flores in pincto quodam 

 excelso Tarajanae, mense Aprili a.d. 1858, sat copiose coUcgi. 



The intensely black hue of this Melyrosoma, combined with its 

 short, robust, and decumbent pile, its subconical prothorax, and the 

 three very elevated costs? with which each of its elytra is furnished, 

 will sufficiently characterize it. It is allied to the Madeiran M. 

 oceanieum, but is rather larger and of a deeper black, its pubescence 

 also is darker and more decumbent, its prothorax is less abbreviated 

 and more conical, its elytral ridges are more distinct, its entire sculp- 

 ture is denser and coarser, and its antennae and palpi are a little more 

 elongated. Like that insect, it is strictly a mountain species ; and 

 the only region in which I have hitherto observed it is the lofty Pinal 

 of Tarajana (above San Bartolome) in the centre of Grand Canary, 

 where, during April 1858, I took it, not uncommonly, on the blos- 

 soms of the Cytisi and Cisti. 



369. Melyrosoma hirtuin. 



Melposoma liirtum, JFolL, loc. cit. 449 (1862). 

 Habitat m montibus valde excelsis TenerifFae, rarissimum. 



The present Melyrosoma may be known from the preceding one by 

 the very long, erect, and fine hairs with which it is densely clothed ; 

 by its still coarser sculpture ; by its prothorax being shorter and more 

 transverse, and with a lightly impressed channel down the disc (in- 

 stead of merely an abbreviated one, or fovea, behind) ; and by its 

 elytral costae being less developed. It bears about the same relation 

 to the Madeiran M. ahdomlnale as the last species does to the ocea- 

 nieum of those islands ; nevertheless its elongated pubescence is still 

 denser, its prothorax is altogether wider (particularly behind), and, 

 together with the head, much more deeply and closely sculptured, and 

 its elytral punctures are larger and more confused (or roughened), 

 having no tendency whatever to be disposed in longitudinal rows. 



The M. hirtum appears to be confined to the higher elevations of 

 TeneriiFe, ascending to the very summit of the Peak itself (more than 

 12,000 feet above the sea), where it was taken by Dr. Crotch, during 

 the spring of 1862. Previous to his detection of it at this immense 

 altitude, I had captured only a single individual,— namely, from off 



