CANAEIAN COLEOPTEEA. 451 



Gemis262. HEGETER. 

 Latreille, Hist Nat. des Crust, et Ins. iii. 172 (1802). 



Although it is possible that some few of the Hegeters enumerated 

 below may be, in reality, but permanent varieties, rather than un- 

 doubted species, nevertheless, since I have been enabled to catch their 

 true distinctions through the fact of my having worked them out from 

 an enormous mass of material collected in the several islands of the 

 Group, and since many of them have already been published by 

 Messrs. "Webb and Berthelot, I think it wUl be more convenient to 

 acknowledge the whole of them as of specific importance — seeing 

 that they are for the most part sufficiently weU defined, and since 

 the admission that any of them are mere phases peculiar to certain 

 districts would involve considerable difficulty in dealing with the 

 remainder. Nevertheless I am far from satisfied that the genus is 

 not essentially a variable one, and consequently suspect that certain 

 of these forms may be but races, gradually matured by the local in- 

 fluences to which, in their own particular regions, they may happen 

 to have been long exposed : but as we have no actual proof to that 

 effect, I do not think that it would be prudent to acknowledge them 

 as of a lower rank than true, though at the same time nearly allied, 

 species. Having taken some pains, whilst in Paris, to examine M. 

 Brulle's types, I believe I may venture to say that his species (as re- 

 enuneiated below) are correctly identified*. 



§ I. Elytra eUiptlca (i. e. antice et postice paulo magis angustata, 

 quare in medio sensim magis rotundata). 

 687. Hegeter tristis. . 



Blaps tristis, Fah., Ent. Si/sf. i. 108 (1792) [sec. Dom. Schaum']. 



elongata, Oliv., Unt.nl 60. pi. i. f. 7 (1795). 



Hegeter striatus, Lat., Hist. Nut. des Crust, et Ins. x. 276 (1804). 



, Bndlc, in Webb et Berth. (Col.) 64 (1838). 



elongatus, Woll., Ins. Mad. 510. tab. xi, f. 7 (1854). 



, Id., Cat. Mud. Col. 157 (1857). 



Habitat insulas omnes Canarienses, sub lapidibus in aridis, necnon 

 in cavemis tufae, vulgaris. 



* In my ' Ins. Mad.' I stated tlie inner maxillary lobe of Hegeter to be unarmed 

 at the apex — an opinion wliich has been reiterated by Lacordaire, who reports 

 that he also dissected the H. elongatus (i. e. tristis) and found that my observation 

 was correct. It certainly was from that species that my generic formida was 

 compiled ; but I can only say that I have just now taken out the maxillae of no 

 less than three members of the group (namely, the tristis, amaroides, and im- 

 pressiis), besides those of the T/ialpojjhila plicifrons and polita, and I fmd that 

 in all instances the inner lobe is powerfully uncinated at its tip, as in the allied 

 genera. Both lobes, however, are very densely clothed with long pile, and it is 

 probable therefore that I failed originally, no less than Lacordaire, to perceive 

 the small but acute claw which terminates the inner one of the H. tristis, on 

 account of its having been concealed in the mass of hairs. 



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