278 CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 



§ II. CoijJus minus, subfusiforme {elytris postice senshn acuminatis); 

 femoribus masculis svbtus obtuse subdentatis. 



447. Mesites fusiformis. 



Mesites fusiformis, WolL, Trans. Ent. Soc. Loud. v. 405 (1861). 



Habitat insulas Canarienses, in Palma soIjx adhuc hand detectus, 

 tnincos ramulosqiie Euphorbiarum emortuos ubique destruens. 



" The present Mesites and the M.pubipennis may at once be known 

 from those already enumerated by their sub fusiform outline (their 

 elytra being more or less perceptibly attenuated posteriorly) and by 

 their male femora being obtusely srcSdentate beneath ; whilst inter 

 se they will be recognized by the M. fusiformis being (like the three 

 preceding species) free from any trace of the lurid pubescence which 

 is so conspicuous in the Palman representative. The M. fusiformis 

 is, likewise, less deeply sculptured than the pubipennis, and its ely- 

 tral interstices are less convex and more sparingly (and even more 

 minutely) punctulated." 



"The M. fusiformis is most abundant thi'oughout the Canarian 

 Group, — Palma being the only one of the seven islands in which, 

 up to the present date, I have not taken it. Being thus universal, 

 however, there can be little doubt that it must exist in Palma like- 

 wise ; and the fact of my sojourn there, in May and Jime of 1858, 

 being somewhat late in the season for the Eujyhorbia-insects, may 

 perhaps be a sufficient explanation for its having escaped me in that 

 island. Nevertheless it is certainly remarkable that the few speci- 

 mens of the genus Mesites which I happened to secure whilst at Palma 

 (or which were secured pre\'iously by Mr. Gray) from the dead stems 

 of the Euphorbias should have been specifically distinct from those 

 which obtain throughout the remainder of the archij)elago. Nor is 

 this rendered the less curious from the circumstance that the large 

 M. persimilis, which infests the laurel-woods of Tencriffe, should bo, 

 also, represented in the sylvan districts of Palma by an allied but 

 most conspicuous species, the M. complanattis I" [he. cit. pp. 405,406.] 



In Lauzarote and Hierro the M. fusiformis was taken likewise by 

 Mr. Gray, in Teneriff'e by the Barao do Castello de Paiva, and in 

 Teneriffe and Gomera by Dr. Crotch ; and in the little islands of 

 Graciosa and Lobos, off the extreme north of Lanzarote and Fuerte- 

 ventura (respectively), I have myself captured it. 



448. Mesites pubipennis. 

 Mesites pubipennis, Wall., Trans. Hut. Soc. Loml. v. 406 (1861). 



Habitat in locis similibus ae prsecedens, sed in ins. Palma, nee alibi. 



