294 CANAKIAN COLEOPTEEA. 



do not project in the slightest degree beyond the curvature of the 

 head ; and by the second joint of their funiculus being more or less 

 perceptibly longer than the first, whereas in the typical Acalles it is 

 more or less distinctly shorter than the basal one. 



In enunciating the following six species, the diagnoses of which 

 have been drawn out from the careful survey of a large number* of 

 individuals, I have been compelled to rely in a great measure upon 

 their sculpture — which, unfortunately, is somewhat difficult of ob- 

 servation, since in order to be appreciated it requires the scales to 

 be removed with which the insects are densely clothed. Eut, on the 

 other hand, it should be borne in mind that a character is not the 

 less real and important because it happens to be an inconvenient one 

 to examine ; and that, consequently, when other details are more or 

 less unstable, it must be regarded as of primary significance. Next 

 to the sculpture, I have found the most constant feature to consist in 

 the precise outline of the elytra — modified, according to the species, 

 bj' their more or less c/fcurved ajjcx, and the oblique lopping-off, in 

 opposite directions, of their humeral region and terminal half (which 

 occasions a more or less evident angle to be shaped-out at either side). 

 Then the greater or less erection, and lengtJi, of the additional scale- 

 like setae seems to be the most satisfactory character. And last of 

 all, as least to be depended upon (though varying, nevertheless, within 

 limits pretty intelligible), is the exact colour, or markings, which the 

 decumbent scales impart to the entire surface. Of course there are 

 some other minutiic, such as size, the relative dilatation of the feet, 

 &c., which afl:brd collateral aid in the determination of these closely 

 allied insects ; but they are of less consequence, and will be adverted 

 to in the several descriptions. 



470. Echinodera hystrix, n. sp. 



E. squamis fusco-brunneis nigrescentibusque dense variegata et fusco- 

 cinereis plus minus obscure maculata, setis longiusculis erectis sat 



* No less than 173 specimens of Echinodera are now before me, — of which 40 

 belong to the E. hystrix, 36 to the crcnafa, 57 to the cmgulipennis, 38 to the or- 

 iticuluta, one to the compacta, and one to the picta. And, bearing out the con- 

 clusions, as to tlie species, at which I have independently arrived, their toi^ogra- 

 jjliical distribution seems extremely natural, — the hi/sfrix occvu'ring in Palma and 

 Ilierro (the two western islands of the G-roup). the crcnafa at the loftiest altitudes 

 of Teneriffe (existing within the range of the " Eetamas," from about 6000 to 

 9000 feet above the sea), the angulipennis in the sylvan and subsylvan districts 

 of , Teneriife, at a distinctly lower (but nevertheless considerable) elevation, the 

 orhiculafa at the upper limits of the wooded regions of Tenerifte, and even as- 

 cending above ihc\i\.\\\e compacta in Grand Canary, and the picta in the dry and 

 barren island of Fuerteventui-a. 



