CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 465 



Genus 264. GNOPHOTA. 

 Erichsou, in Wieg. Archiv, ix. 237 (1843). 

 The very remarkable sculpture of the head and prothorax of the 

 three insects described below led me to suspect, even before I had 

 accurately examined them, that they might perhaps be genericaUy 

 distinct from the allied forms ; and I now perceive that the construc- 

 tion of their prosternal lobe, which is suddenly curved downwards 

 between the anterior coxae, and their somewhat smaller eyes, which 

 are more or less bounded posteriorly by an oblique carina, or slightly 

 elevated rim, will clearly refer them to Gnojphota of Erichson — a 

 group which I believe to be confined, so far as the hitherto acknow- 

 ledged members of it are concerned, to the Cape de Yerdes*. Indeed 

 the two above-mentioned peculiarities seem to be almost the only 

 ones, sanctioned by Erichson and Lacordaire, to separate it from 

 Hegeter ; but I think that the anteriorly serrated epistome (which is 

 'submueronated in the centre) should be added ; and I also imagine 

 that considerable stress ought to be laid upon the very singular sculp- 

 ture of the head and prothorax — which are coarsely and closely punc- 

 tured, the punctures having a greater or less tendency to become 

 completely confluent longitudinally (especially on either side) so as 

 to produce somewhat curved strigae. In the O. curta, a type of which 

 has been communicated to me by Schaum, this sculpture is carried 

 to an absurd excess ; but even in the Canarian representatives of the 

 group it is conspicuously indicated. 



§ I. Oculi transversi, suhreniformes, postice indistincte carinato- 

 terminati. 



703. Gnophota cribricollis. 



G. oblonga, subdepressa, subopaca ; capite prothoraceque dense et 

 valde profunde punctatis, punctis (in disco hujus exceptis) oblongis 

 confluentibus strigas longitudinales plus minus efficientibus, hoc ad 

 latera leviter rotundato, ad basin bisinuato, angulis posticis subob- 

 tusis ; elytris minutissime et parce pimctulatis ; antennis pedibus- 

 que subgracilibus, piceis, illarum articulo 3*'° quarto multo longiore. 



Variat elytris vel simplicibus vel obsoletissime substriatis, rarius sub- 

 impresso-inaequalibus. — Long. corp. lin. 2-2^. 



Hegeter cribricollis, Bridle, in Webb et Berth. (Col.) 66 (1838). 

 Habitat Canariam Grandem, prsesertim in regionibus australibus 



degens. 



* I say the Cape de Verdes, because it is now a known fact that the collector who 

 was sent to Angola (and who died there) stopped at those islands en passant, and 

 that his material from the two countries was amalgamated, and afterwards trans- 

 mitted to Europe as Angolan — thus occasioning an amount of confusion which 

 a furtlier and more accurate knowledge of the respective faunas can alone dispel. 



9 TT 



