CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 309 



It is with the greatest hesitation that I cite this Aplon as more than 

 a variety of the A. scKjittiferum ; and certainly I shoukl not have 

 ventured to do so had not my attention been lately directed to it by 

 Mr. Haliday, who has captured examples in Italy, from off the Mer- 

 mrialis annua, which he considers to be conspecific with a pair from 

 Lanzarote which I sent him for comparison, but distinct from the 

 Madeiran A. sagittiferum (which appears, also, to be universal, or 

 nearly so, throughout the Canarian archipelago). And the difficulty 

 of recognizing it as more than a phasis of the latter is not diminished 

 by the consideration that certain individuals from Fuerteventura seem 

 to me (though perhaps fallaciously) to be intermediate between the 

 two. Still, it is by no means impossible that the species may be truly 

 distinct, although so closely allied that they are occasionally difficult 

 to separate, — a contingency which is rendered all the more probable 

 by the fact that their habits are, I believe, different — the present one 

 being attached, apparently, to the foliage of the Mercurialis annua, 

 whilst the A. sagittiferum occiu-s indiscriminately on various plants, 

 and is extremely common (in Madeira at any rate) even amongst the 

 lichens which clothe the crevices of the weather-beaten rocks at in- 

 termediate (and even lofty) elevations. Backed, therefore, by this 

 circumstance, as well as by the high authority of Mr. Haliday, I think 

 it is not too much to register the two as distinct ; but (if such be really 

 the case) it is at least very remarkable that I should have met with 

 the A. sagittiferum abundantly in six of the Canarian islands, whilst 

 in the seventh it should be represented by a species which is so nearly 

 akin to it as to be but just separable. Be this, however, as it may, 

 the Lanzarotan(and ??ios^, also, of the Fuerteventuran) examples (which 

 are certainly, according to Mr. Haliday, conspecific with the Algerian 

 albopilosus of Lucas, and probably likewise with the ordinary Euro- 

 pean A. Germari) dift'er from the normal ones of the sagittiferum (found 

 throughout the remainder of the Group) in being a trifle less opake 

 and clothed with rather whiter scales ; in the rostrum of their female 

 sex being (if anything) just perceptibly broader and less evidently 

 punctulated (being in fact nearly impunctate); in their elytral mark- 

 ings being more suffused, and consequently less defined ; and in their 

 legs being of a clearer, and altogether palHd, hue. 



The A. Germari (if such be its true title) was taken both by Mr, Gray 

 and myself around Haria in the north of Lanzarote, during January 

 1858, and by myself, at the beginning of April 1859, in the Eio Palmas 

 of Fuerteventura, — I helieve, in all instances, from off the common 

 Mercurialis a nnua. 



