CANARIAN COLEOPTKKA. 273 



440. Phlceophagus piceus. 



Phlceophagus piceus, JFolL, Tram. Ent. Soc. Loud. v. 374 (1861). 



Habitat Lanzarotam, Fuerteventuram et Canariam, in arboribus 

 antiqiiis Fici praecipue degens. 



Its somewhat narrower outline and more piceous hue, in conjunc- 

 tion with its rather k^ss coarsely punctured prothorax, its obsolete 

 (or subobsolete) scutellum, and its only slightly expanded antepe- 

 nultimate tarsal joint, will sufficiently characterize this species. As 

 regards its mode of life, it seems to occur principally in the rotten 

 wood of old fig-trees at low and intermediate elevations ; imder 

 which circumstances I have taken it in Lanzarote and Puerteventura, 

 and at Megan in Grand Canary, — in the first of which islands it was 

 found also by Mr, Gray. The Lanzarotan and Fuerteventuran spe- 

 cimens, which in my Memoir " on the Atlantic Cossonides " I have 

 regarded as the '* var. /5. sabparalhlus" are a little larger and more 

 parallel than those from Mogan in Grand Canary, and have their 

 prothorax somewhat more finely and closely punctured ; but their 

 other details, no less than their habits, do not appear to differ from 

 the Canarian ones, and I believe that it would scarcely be safe to 

 treat them as specifically distinct. 



Genus 184. PENTATEMNUS. 

 Wollaston, Trans. Ent. Sue. Loml. v. 385 (1861). 



441. Pentatemnus arenarius. 



Pentatemnus arenarius, Wul!., Travis. Ent. Soc. Lond. v. 388. pi. 19. 

 f. 1 (1861). 



Habitat Lanzarotam, Fuerteventuram et Canariam, ad radices 

 plantarum in arenosis aridis submaritimis crescentium fodiens. 



Of this cimous insect, so remarkable [amongst the Cossonides) for 

 its convex, fusiform, pilose body, obsolete eyes, thick, abbreviated 

 antennae (ydth. their 5-jointed funiculus), subfossorial habits, and for 

 the minute spine with which the inner apical angle of its tibite is 

 furnished, I have given the full details (structural and diagnostic) 

 in my Paper *' on the Atlantic Cossonides.'"' Its mode of life is very 

 peculiar, it being found about the roots of the few shrubby plants 

 (particularly the Zygophiillum Fontanesii, Webb, and a small Eu- 

 pJiorhia) which stud the dry sandy wastes of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, 

 and Grand Canary, — usually at a considerable depth beneath the 

 surface of the ground. Hitherto I have observed it principally in 

 Fuerteventura, where it was first captured by Mr. Gray and myself 



