1398 CANAEIAN COLEOPTERA, 



from the Barraneo de Agua, and the Hierro ones from the region of 

 El Golfo. 



Both of these Canarian Cryptoctpliali are closely related to the C. 

 crenatus* of Madeira, and are also very nearly allied inter se ; but 

 that they are not sexual forms of a single species I am convinced, 

 inasmuch as I possess males and females of them both. Apart, how- 

 ever, from the greater instability of its colour, and its apparently 

 wider range (both horizontal and vertical), the C nitidicoUis may 

 immediately be known by its bright and almost unpunctured pro- 

 thorax, and by its elytral stria? being less impressed. 



609. Cryptocephalus puncticollis, n. sp. 

 C. prsecedenti simiiis et valde affinis, sed prothorace vix breviore mi- 

 nusque convexo necnon subopaco (baud nitido) et profunde dense- 

 quo punctato ; elytris ad apiccm sensim minus singulatim rotun- 

 datis, striis (profunde pimctatis) magis impressis, quare iuterstitiis 

 paulo magis convexis ; pedibus vix crassioribus. — Long, corp. lin. 



1-13 



Habitat in Teneriffa, Palma et Hierro, sat rarus. 



As may be gathered from what has already been said, the present 

 Cryptoce'phalus may immediately be recognized from the last one by 

 its prothorax being a trifle shorter and less convex, as also subopake 

 and deeply and closely punctured (instead of being bright and nearly 

 impunctate) ; by its elytra (which are rather less rounded off, sepa- 

 rately, at their respective apices) having their coarsely punctured 

 strife more impressed, and therefore their interstices a little more 

 convex ; and by its legs being, on the average, perhaps somewhat 

 thicker, or more robust. Moreover the sixteen specimens now before 

 me are uniformly pale, there being no trace of the darker markings 

 which certain examples of the nitidicoUis (particularly those from the 

 higher elevations) tend to assume ; but whether this character is a 

 constant one, I am of course unable to aifirm. 



The 0. puncticollis appears to be rather scarcer, and less widely 

 spread, than its ally, and may perhaps be confined to the central and 

 western islands of the archipelago. At any rate I have observed it 

 hitherto only in Teneriffe, Palma, and Hierro, in the first of which it 

 has also been taken by Dr. Crotch. My Teneriffan examples are from 

 Taganana, Souzal, and the Agua Garcia. 



* The Madeiran C. crenatus differs, inter alia, from both of the Canarian spe- 

 cies in having its elytral strite finely and closely crenated (instead of deeply and 

 remotely punctured). In the sculpture of its prothorax it is somewhat inter- 

 mediate between the nitidicoUis and puncticollis — though nearer, I tliink, to the 

 former. 



