60 MADEIRAN COLEOPTERA, 
rensia ; nevertheless the single one included therein is of so curiously 
globose a form, that I did not recognize it, whilst compiling that 
volume, to be an Atomaria; and consequently described it (under 
the specific title of alternans) as an Ephistemus. I expressly stated, 
however, that it did not accord with the normal Ephistemi; and I 
therefore constituted it into a distinct Section, bearing the subgeneric 
name of Microwm, and characterized by the exact peculiarities of 
structure which distinguish the Atomarie from the members of that 
small and closely allied group. Having had occasion lately, however, 
to revise our British Atomarie on a somewhat extensive scale, I at 
once perceived that what I had regarded as an aberrant (Madeiran) 
Ephistemus was in reality an Atomaria; whilst the discovery of three 
additional species, during my last researches in those islands, has 
caused the genus to be well represented in our fauna. It will con- 
sequently be sufficient here to state, that the Atomarie may be 
known from the Ephistemi by their larger bulk and less globose 
bodies, by the greater length of their limbs, by their mandibles 
having a minute tooth immediately within their apex, and by the 
funiculus of their antennze having the joints (though not always very 
distinctly so) alternately long and short. The terminal joint of their 
labial palpi, moreover, is not so narrow, or aciculated, as in that 
group. 
§ I. Corpus alatum: prothorax postice marginatus, margine in media 
leviter elevato. 
167. Atomaria munda*, 
A. oblonga picea pubescens nitida punctata, capite prothoraceque 
rufescentibus, hoe foveé medid profundaé (utrinque costata) ad 
basin transversim impresso, elytris ad apicem dilutioribus, antennis 
robustis rufo-ferrugineis, pedibus rufo-testaceis. 
Long. corp. lin. 4. 
Atomaria munda, Erich., Nat. der Ins. Deutsch. iii. 388 (1848). 
, Redt., Fra Austr. 195 (1849). 
, Woll., Rer. Brit. Atom., Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. iv. (New 
Series) 64 (1857). 
A. oblong, piceous or rufo-piceous, pubescent, shining, and punc- 
tured. Head and prothorax much more rufous than the elytra: 
the latter widest about the middle, and with the sides rather 
straightened towards the posterior angles; distinctly margined 
along its lateral, and obscurely so along its hinder edge, and with 
a very deep, transverse, central impression at its base,—the mar- 
gin being slightly raised behind it, and the impression abruptly 
terminated at either end by a short costa or ridge. Hlytra more 
or less diluted in colouring towards their apex. Antenne robust, 
and rufo-ferruginous. Legs rufo-testaceous. 




