510 CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 



tura haud ultra lin. 4 ascendit, necnon in colore plus minus fuseo- 

 picescente (nee aterrimo) differt ; corpore ssepius minus nitido, 

 punctura in capite prothoraceque subdensiore et vix subtiliore, 

 elytris plerumque vix magis tcnuiter striatis atque in interstitiis 

 forsan subdensius distinctiusque (tamen subtilissime) punctulatis. 



Helops caraboides ?, Bridle [nee Linn.'], in Webb et Berth. (Col.) 69 



(1838). 



Habitat in Lanzarota et Fuerteventura (proesertim illtx) hinc inde 

 vulgaris. 



The larger examples of this Helops would seem, at first sight, al- 

 most to merge into the smaller ones of the H. cethiojjs ; yet I be- 

 lieve that the species are positively distinct from each other, even 

 though extreme individuals of the two (in opposite directions) are 

 not alwaj^s readily separable — at any rate without a very accurate 

 comparison of them. The largest specimens which I have been able 

 to detect of the ff. picescens are so veri/ much smaller than those of 

 the aitliiops that in their ordinary states no species could be better 

 defined ; but, apart from this, the much less blackened hue of the 

 former (which is more or less of a dark reddish-brown, with the 

 limbs pale rufo-ferruginous), combined with its somewhat more 

 densely and finely punctured head and prothorax, and (however mi- 

 nutely) rather more evidently punctulated elytral interstices, will 

 additionally separate it from that insect. 



The size, coloiir, and general appearance of this Helops give it 

 slightly the |»'????« facie aspect of the European H. caraboides, and 

 I have little doubt that it is the species referred to that insect in M. 

 Brulle's most inaccurate and loosely-compiled list*. The most super- 

 ficial inspection of it, however, will suffice to prove that it belongs 

 in reality to a totally different type — in which the body is always 

 apterous, the eyes rather less developed, and the prothorax totally 

 unflattened at the sides ; whilst it is fiu'ther distinguished from the 

 caraboides by its longer genae, its somewhat less closely and more 

 coarsely punctured prothorax (which is convexer and less evidently 

 margined), and by its elytra having their strife considerably lighter but 

 more decidedly punctured, with the punctules of their interstices com- 

 parativehj imperceptible. In the development of its male tarsi it is 

 a little variable. 



* From Prof. Heer, of Zuricli, I have received it (and so lias Dr. Sehaiim) 

 actually identified with the earahoidcs, and labelled as coming from " Teneriffe " ; 

 whereas, in reality, it has nothinn; whatever to do with the caraboides, and most 

 unquestionably is not Teneriffan ! His examples were received from M. Har- 

 tung ; and I mi/^rlf took others of them out of M. Hartung's own boxes (by his 

 permission), lehere they luerc (fhev) righfly cissociated with liis material fi-om Lan- 

 zarote. 



