406 CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 



Fam. 55. HALTICIDiE. 



Genus 241. HALTICA. 

 Geoffroy, Hist. Ahr. des Ins. i. 244 [script. Altica] (1762). 



(Subgenus Crepidodera, CJiev.) 



620. Haltica Allardii. 



Haltica Allardii, Woll, Journ. of Ent. i. 1 (1860). 



Crepidodera Allardii, Allard,Ann. de hiSoc.Mit.deFrance,312 (1862). 



Habitat TcnerifFam, foliis Physalklls aristatce circum Portum Oro- 

 tavae gaudens. 



This interesting little Haltica, so remarkable for its pubescent sur- 

 face, coarsely punctured, basally-impressed prothorax, deeply punc- 

 tate-striated elytra, and pallid hue (the suture and an abbreviated 

 medial elytral fascia being alone, in normally coloured specimens, 

 more or less dark), is closely allied to the European H. atropce. It 

 is, however, a trifle smaller than that insect, and its head and pro- 

 thorax are pale rufo-testaceous (instead of black) ; its limbs also are 

 paler, its punctation (although coarse) is not quite so riigose, and 

 the dark portions of its elytra are very much narrower and less 

 developed. Hitherto I have observed it only in the district around 

 the Puerto Orotava in Teneriffe, where it is tolerably common during 

 the spring months on the foliage of the Physalis aristata — a shrub 

 intimately related to the Atropa belladonna, on which its more north- 

 ern ally exclusively subsists. 



621. Haltica lubrica, n. sp. 

 H. subovalis, convexa, nitida, rufo-ferruginea, elytris paulo magis 

 testaceis ; capite prothoraccquc minutissime et levissime pimctu- 

 latis, hoc angusto angulis posticis obtiisis, postice in medio levissime 

 transversim impresso sed utrinque foveji parva profunda notato ; 

 elytris profunde striate- punctatis. — Long. corp. lin. li. 



Habitat TcnerifFam ; exemplar unicum tempore vernaU a.d. 1862 

 deprehendit W. D. Crotch. 



The present Haltica is a good deal allied, at first sight, to the 

 European H. ventralis, lUig. ; it is, however, a Httle larger, more 

 shining, and convex, its colour is considerably darker, or more ferru- 

 ginous, its prothorax is altogether narrower (especially in front), less 

 deeply impressed at the base, and with its posterior angles more ob- 

 tuse, and its elytra are somewhat moi'e oval and more deeply punc- 

 tate-striated. The unique example described from was taken by 

 Dr. Crotch in Tenerilfe, during the spring of 1862. 



