CANAKIAN COLEOPTEEA. 421 



group. Nevertheless, in its external fades, elliptic outline, and the 

 produced hinder angles of its prothorax, it is so curiously suggestive 

 of a gigantic Throsciis, that at first I could scarcely resist the con- 

 viction that it must at least belong to the same /((mil >/ as the latter; 

 though, in rcalit}', its exposed head (consequent on the fact of its 

 pronotuni and prosternum being, both of them, truncated anteriorly), 

 its freedom from under-grooves for the reception of its antennae when 

 laid back in a state of repose, not to mention innumerable differences, 

 of primary signification, in its various structural minutia', will at once 

 remove it, on a closer inspection, from the Throscuhe. 



646. Xestus throscoides, n. sp. 



X. ellipticus, nitidus, calvus, piceo-niger ; capite prothoraceque pavdo 

 obscurioribus (evidentius subtiKssime alutaceis) et argute punctu- 

 latis, illo paulo rufescentiore, hoc (saltern in disco) convexo, ad 

 latera et distinctius per marginem trisinuatum posticum (praesertim 

 in lobo medio) marginato ; elytris in disco convexis, mox pone 

 basin obsolete subangulatim latioribus, inde ad apicem (rufo-ferru- 

 gineum) regulariter acuminatis, leviter striato-punctatis, intersti- 

 tiis vage miuutissirae punctulatis ; antennis pedibusque rufo-tes- 

 taceis. — Long. corp. lin. 2-2^. 



Habitat in lauretis humidis Teneriffae, in montibus supra Taga- 

 uanam ad fungos necnon etiam sub cortice arborum laxo putrido par- 

 cissime captus. 



Not to mention its Throscoideous contour already alluded to, the 

 piceous-black surface of this singular insect, which has its limbs and 

 the apex of its elytra alone more or less rufo-ferruginous, in con- 

 junction with its sharply punctulated head and prothorax (the latter 

 of which is margined along its obliquely-straight sides and trisinuated 

 basal edge — particularly in the centre), and its lightly striate-punc- 

 tate, apically-acuminated elytra, will prevent its being confounded 

 with anything else with which we have here to do. It appears to 

 be of the greatest rarity and of fungivorous habits — the few spe- 

 cimens which I have seen (eleven in number) having been captured 

 by myself, in Teneriffe, during May of 1859, from ^vithinflm(Jfi, in 

 the damp and elevated laurel -woods which clothe the mountains above 

 Taganana and Point Anaga ; as well as from beneath the loosened 

 putrid bark of trees, under which minute Ciyptogams were more or 

 less evident. 



Fam. 59. COCCINELLIDiE. 



Genus 249. COCCINELLA. 



Linnseus, S>/st. Nat. edit. i. [script. Coccionella] (1735). 



