CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. . 543 



818. Homalota atramentaria. 



Aleocliara atramentaria {Kby), Gyll., Ins. Stiec. ii. 408 (1810). 

 Homalota atramentaria, Erich., Gen. et Spec. StcqiJi. Ill (1839). 



, Woll, Ins. Mad. 555 (1854). 



, Id., Cat. Mad. Col. 178 (1857). 



Hahitat insulas omnes Canarienses, in stercore bovino vulgaris. 



The deep-black hue of the European H. atramentaria (the legs of 

 which are dark piceous, with the tarsi pale), in conjunction with its 

 somewhat slender limbs and its rather flattened, densely pubescent, 

 thickly punctulated (and alutaceous) head, prothorax, and elytra, 

 which have usually a just perceptible senescent tinge, will readily 

 distir.guish it. It abounds throughout the Madeiran Group, and is 

 equally universal at the Canaries — in the whole seven islands of which 

 except Gomera (where it was found both by Mr. Gray and Dr. Crotch) 

 I have myself captured it. My Teneritfan specimens are principally 

 from the neighbourhood of S*^ Cruz and the Puerto Orotava, Ycod el 

 Alto, the Agua Mansa, and Taganana. It occurs principally in the 

 dung of cattle. 



819. Homalota laeta, n. sp. 



H. subnitida, parce pubescens, densissime alutacea piinctuKsque sat 

 crebre (in capite nigro parce) subasperata ; prothorace rufo-ferru- 

 gineo, postice in medio impresso ; elytris rufo-ferrugineis, hinc 

 inde (prajsertim versus latera) obscure infuscato-suffusis ; abdo- 

 mine nigi-o, basi et praesertim ad apicem rufo-ferrugineo ; antennis 

 nigrescentibus, ad basin pedibusque testaceis. — Long, coi-p. lin. li. 



Hahitat Gomeram ; tria specimina cepit W. D. Crotch. 



The black head and rufo-ferruginous prothorax and elytra (the 

 latter of which, however, are much infuscated in parts — especially 

 towards the sides and scutellum) of this beautiful Homalota, combined 

 with the rufo-ferruginous apex of its abdomen and its pale-testaceous 

 legs, will at once characterize it. Its general aspect and colouring- 

 are more in accordance with the fungivorous species ; but as I have 

 not captui-ed it myself, I am unable to vouch for its habits. The only 

 three examples which I have seen were taken by Dr. Crotch in Go- 

 mera, during the spring of 1862. It is most nearly aUied to the Ma- 

 deiran H. insignis, with which in colouring it is almost coincident, 

 and of which it is barely possible that it may be but a geographical 

 state. It differs from that insect, merely, in being a little smaller 

 and narrower, in its head being more oval (or less transverse), and in 

 its prothorax being much more deeply (and rather more sparingly) 

 punctured, whilst the sculpture of its abdomen is, if anything, some- 

 what denser and coarser. 



