CANARIAN COLEOPTERA, 501 



Tenebrio molitor* ?, Bridle, in Webb et Berth. (Col.) 68 (1838). 



obscurus, Woll, Itis. Mad. 497 (1854). 



, Id., Cat. Mad Col. 153 (1857). 



Habitat Fuerteventiiram, Canariam, Teneriffam, Gomeram et Pal- 

 mam, in domibus, granariis, et praecipue sub recremento farris circa 

 basin acervorum tritici sparso, certe introductus. 



This common European Tenebrio (which is found also in Madeira 

 and at the Azores) abounds at the Canaries, where it has doubtless 

 been introduced from more northern latitudes, and where it occurs 

 not only about houses and granaries but (more particularly) beneath 

 the rubbish around the base of corn-stacks. In such situations I have 

 taken it in Fuerteventura, Grand Canary, Teneriife, and Palma ; and 

 it has been communicated from Teneriffe and Gomera by the Barao 

 do CasteUo de Paiva. There can be no doubt that it must exist 

 equally in Lanzarote and Hierro, and that it is, consequently, uni- 

 versal. 



750. Tenebrio olivensis, n. sp. 

 T. praecedente minor ac nitidior, scutello multo minore, triangulari 

 (nee transversim pentagono), elytris valde profunde crenato-striatis, 

 tibiis sensim gracilioribus ; capite prothoraceque dense, sat pro- 

 funde et argute punctatis, hoc convexo, ad latera grosse sed ad 

 basin tenuiter marginato, angulis anticis acutis porrectis, posticis 

 acutissimis productis ; elytris basi profunde bisinuatis, iuterstitiis 

 convexis, minutissime et parce sed argute punctulatis. — Long. corp. 

 lin. 4. 



Habitat Fuerteventuram ; Martio exeunte a.d. 1859 exemplar unum 

 sub lapide prope Olivam coUegi. 



A single example of this well-marked Tenebrio was captured by 

 myself, on the 3J st of March 1859, in Fuerteventura — from beneath 

 a stone, in the flat ground about half a mile to the south of Oliva. 

 Its comparatively smaU size and triangular scuteUum would, even of 

 themselves, distinguish it from the obscurus and molitor, in which 

 that organ is large and transversely pentagonalf; but it is further 

 remarkable for the acute angles of its prothorax (which is convex, 

 and broadly margined at the sides), and for its elytra being greatly 

 bisinuated at their base and very deeply crenate-striate, with their 



* Although it is very possible that the common European T. molitor may like- 

 wise have been introduced at the Canaries, nevertheless, as neither I nor any of the 

 collectors with whom I have been associated have detected any traces of it, wliilst 

 the obscurus absolutely abounds (and could scarcely, therefore, have escaped the 

 observation of even Messrs. Webb and Berthelot), 1 have little doubt that the " T. 

 7nolifor " of M. Brulle's most inaccurate list was inserted, in reahty, from ex- 

 amples of the obscurus. 



t Lacordaire calls it Acragonal ; but if the basal line be straight (as I take it to 

 be), the scutelluni of the molitor and obscurus cannot be more than a pentagon. 



