456 CANAllIAN COLEOPTERA. 



these characters are gradiudhj diminished, until, in the lower dis- 

 tricts, it is, on the average, comparatively small, and relatively not 

 quite so broad, its sculpture is altogether finer (though never obso- 

 lete), and its elytra are not quite so parallel (or so widened) ante- 

 riorly : nevertheless, after inspecting carefully an immense series 

 of specimens, I am satisfied that the two forms merge into each other 

 by imperceptible gradations, and therefore cannot be retained as spe- 

 cifically distinct. The larger state (a) is common in the wooded re- 

 gion of the Agiia Mansa and above Ycod el Alto ; and the smaller one 

 (/t3) is universal in the lower portions of the Vale of Orotava, around 

 the Villa and Puerto, where it was also taken by Mr. Gray and the 

 Rev. R. T. Lowe. From the H. amaroides its difterent outline and 

 more transverse prothorax, in conjunction with its shorter and thicker 

 limbs (the second joint of its antcnnse beuig, par excellence, less elon- 

 gated), will readily separate it. 



692. Hegeter brevicollis. 

 H. affinis H. transverso fi, sed paulo minor angustior subconvexior, 

 vix minus opacus, punctura etiam subtiliore (quasi omnino obso- 

 leta) ; prothorace ad basin minus bisinuato, angulis posticis sensim 

 obtusioribus, ad latera asqualiter subrotundato. 

 Var. /3. gonierensis [an species ?]. Subovatior, paulo nitidior, punc- 

 tura (subtilissima sed) forsan subdistinctiore ; prothoraeis angulis 

 posticis rectis, paulo magis argute determinatis ; elytris apice vix 

 minus acute productis ; antennis pedibusque sensim crassioribus. 

 \_Ins. Gomera.] — Long. corp. lin. 3-4. 



Hegeter brevicollis, BndU, in Webb et Berth. (Col.) 65 (1838). 

 Habitat Tenerrffam et Gomeram, varietate /3 huic propria. 

 The larger examples of this Hegeter approach very closely, at first 

 sight, to the smaller ones of the " ft "-state of the transversus ; and 

 whilst the latter appears to occur in the intermediate regions of the 

 Vale of Orotava in Teneriffe, not often descending to the lowest 

 elevations, the present species I have detected hitherto only around 

 the Puerto, at but a slight distance above the sea-level. On a 

 careful inspection it will be observed, always, to differ from even 

 the smallest and most aberrant varieties of the H. transversus in 

 being relatively a trifle narrower and more convex, in its punctation 

 being so excessively fine as to be barely traceable (and, therefore, 

 strictly obsolete), and in its prothorax being less bisinuated along the 

 basal edge, with the posterior angles more obtuse, and with the sides 

 a little more equally rounded. It is also, on the average, smaller 

 than even the " ft "-state of the transversus, and if anything a trifle 

 less opake. 



