CANARIAN COLEOPTERA. 575 



cidedly) when occurring within the sylvan districts ; for at times it 

 certainly is not easy (unless perchance any of the differential features 

 have escaped me) to di'aw a line of positive demarcation between the 

 two. Still, in a general way, they are easily separated ; and since 

 also their habits are not quite the same, I prefer thinking it probable 

 that I have overlooked some few of their characters to treating them 

 as absolutely conspecific. 



The P. simidans (as above defined) differs from the nigritulus, 

 merely, in being on the average just perceptibly larger, with its head 

 a little more developed ; in its having a more or less traceable (though 

 always obscure) subaenescent tinge ; in its head and prothox'ax (when 

 viewed beneath a high magnifying power) being more distinctly, 

 though very minutely, transversely-?';«f ec? or -substrigulose ; and in 

 its antennae being usuaUi/ a triHe thicker and darker (especially towards 

 their apex). The Canarian examples have their elytra somewhat 

 less deeply punctured than the Madeiran ones. It occurs pretty 

 generally throughout the sylvan and subsylvan districts of inter- 

 mediate elevations — predominating in those regions, just as the nigri- 

 tulus does in the lower and more exposed ones. I have taken it in 

 Grand Canary, Teneriffe (where it was found also by Dr. Crotch), 

 Palma, and Hierro. My Grand-Canarian specimens are principally 

 from the region of El Monte, and the Teneriffan ones from the laurel- 

 woods above Taganana, Las Mercedes, La Esperanza, the Agua Garcia, 

 and the Agua Mansa. 



§ IV. Prothoracis seriebus dorsaJibus e punctis 7 vel 8 compositis. 

 877. PMlonthus punctipennis. 



P. piceo-niger, nitidus ; elytris profunde, densissime et argute punc- 

 tatis, parce pubescentibus, sutura paulo dilutiore ; abdomine sub- 

 tilius sed distincte punctate, plus minus metalHco-tincto ; antennis 

 brunneis, ad basin piceo-testaceis ; pedibus rufo-testaceis, hiuc 

 inde picescentioribus. — Long. corp. lin. 4-5. 



Philonthus punctipennis, Woll, Cat. Mad. Col. 192 (1857). 



Habitat in montibus Canariae Grandis, rarissimus. 



This noble PMlonthus, which occurs sparingly at Madeira, may at 

 once be recognized by its large size and piccous-black hue (the ab- 

 domen, however, having a slight metallic lustre), by its prothoracic 

 series being composed of seven or eight punctures on either side of 

 the disc, by its elytra being deeply, closely, regularly, and sharply 

 punctured, by its piceous-brown antennae, and by its rufo -testaceous 

 (though a little infuscated) legs. The only two examples which I have 

 as yet seen from these islands were captured by myself, during the 



