574 CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 



§ III. Protlioracis seriehus dorsaUbus e punctis 6 compositis. 



875. Philonthus nigritulus. 



Staphylinus nigritulus et aterrimus, Grav., Col. Micropt. 41 (180:2). 

 Philoutlius aterrinuis, Erich.. Gen. et Spec. Staph. 492 (1839). 



, WolL, Ins. Mad. 584 (18,54). 



nigritulus, Kraatz, Nat. der Ins. Detdsch. ii. 616 (1856). 



— , WolL, Cat. 3Iad. Col. 191 (1857). 



Habitat insulas Canarienses, in Fuerteventura et Hierro solis adhuc 

 baud detectus. 



There can be little doubt that this common European Philonthus 

 (which abounds in the Madeiran Group) is universal at the Canaries, 

 though hitherto it does not happen to have been observed in either 

 Fuerteventura or Hierro. In all the other islands I have myself 

 captured it ; whilst in Lanzarote and Gomera it was found likewise 

 by Mr. Gray, and in Teneriffe, Gomera, and Palma by Dr. Crotch. 

 It occurs in damp jilaces generally, both at the edges of the streams 

 and beneath decaying vegetable refuse, ascending from nearly the 

 sea-level to an altitude of at least 8000 feet ; nevertheless it is more 

 abimdant in the lower and drier districts than in the wooded ones 

 (unless indeed the P. simulans is but a phasis assumed by it in the 

 latter). 



876. Philonthus simulans. 



P. proecedenti valde affinis (fortasse ejus varietas in regionibus syl- 

 vaticis prsdominans) ; plcrumque vix major et obsoletissime sub- 

 seneo-tinctus, capite prothoraceque (oculo fortiter armato) evi- 

 dentius transversim undulate- substrigulosis, illo sensim majore, 

 hujus punctis saepius subma,joribus, antennis vix robustioribus et 

 saepius (prsesertim ad apicem) subnigrescentioribus. — Long. corp. 

 lin. 2-21. 



Philonthus sunulans, Wall., Cat. Mad. Col. 190 (1857). 



Habitat in Canaria, TenerifFa, Palma et Hierro, praesertim in inter- 

 mediis humidis sylvaticis, late diffusus. 



Although I felt tolerably satisfied, when compiling my Madeiran 

 Catalogue, that the P. simulans of that Group is distinct from (how- 

 ever closely allied to) the nigritulus, 1 must nevertheless acknowledge 

 that an immense array of Canarian examples which I have since 

 inspected leaves me in some doubt on the subject. Indeed it appears 

 to me to be far from impossible that the simulans may in reality be 

 but a state which the nigritulus is apt to assume (more or less de- 

 more rufo-te&ta.ceoi\s, than the legs, and their third and terminal joints have a 

 slight tendency to be faintly obscured — a character which I do not see alluded to 

 either in Erichson's Monograph or elsewhere. 



