CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 271 



usually quite untraceable even beneath the highest powers of the 

 microscope. 



437. Phlceophagus laurineus. 

 Phloeophagus laurineus, Wall., Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. v. 371 (1861). 

 Habitat in sylvaticis editioribus TenerifFa?, Gomerce et Palmae, sub 

 cortice laurorum erodens. 



Although approaching each other at first sight, the present Phloeo- 

 phagus and the last one will be seen, on a closer inspection, to be 

 totally distinct. Their habits, also, are quite different > for whilst 

 the P. caulium is apparently peculiar to the decayed Eiiphorhia-siems, 

 in the two arid islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, the laurineus, 

 on the other hand, has been observed hitherto only in the laurel- 

 regions of a comparatively high elevation in Teneriife, Gomera, and 

 Palma, where it occurs beneath the dead bark of the old trees, in 

 the dampest and most sylvan spots. It may be known from the 

 caulium by its elytra being just perceptibly less ovate and stiU more 

 deeply sculptured (the punctures being excessively large and the in- 

 terstices somewhat raised, or convex), by its antennae and legs being 

 a trifle longer and paler, and by its scutellum (although minute) being 

 always developed and readily distinguishable even under an ordinary 

 lens. The Palman form, which in my Paper " on the Atlantic Cos- 

 sonides " I have regarded as the " var. /3. capittilatus,''^ dififers a little 

 from that which obtains in Teneriffe, " having its prothorax (when 

 viewed beneath the microscope) subalutaceous, with the punctures 

 rather smaller and more dense, its elytral interstices somewhat less 

 convex, and its antennal club a trifle more abbreviated and abrupt ;" 

 but there can be no doubt, I think, that it is a mere insular phasis 

 of the other. 



I have taken the P. laurineus, in its typical state, in the laurel- 

 woods above Taganana, as also in those at Las Mercedes and the 

 Agua Garcia, of Teneriffe ; and the var. /3, in similar situations, in 

 the Barranco da Agua and the Barranco de Galga, of Palma. It was 

 likewise found, though sparingly, by Dr. Crotch in Gomera. 



438. Phlceopliagus afl&nis. 



Phloeophagus affinis, Woll, Trans. Mit. Soc. Lond. v. 373 (1861). 



Habitat in Teneriff'a et Hierro, ramos Euphorbiarum emortuos nisi 

 faUor praecipue destruens. 



In my Paper " on the Atlantic Cossonides" I have remarked that 

 "For the present Phlceojohagus I have no very decided structural 

 character, and I can therefore best express it negatively — i. e., by 



