MADEIRAN COLEOPTERA, 91 
Grtn.), in dead wood, and amongst lichen, principally at intermediate 
altitudes. It passes through many varieties of size and hue, being 
smaller however on the Northern Dezerta than elsewhere. In the 
sylvan districts of Madeira proper the males have their antenne 
slightly longer than is usually the case in the other islands, and it 
was this particular state that I described under the name of P. lon- 
gicorms; on a further examination of it, however, I am inclined 
to believe that it cannot be upheld as a distinct species,—and 
especially so since the females are perfectly identical with those from 
the other islands; and I have consequently sunk it. 
B. Antenne basi distantes. 
246, Ptinus nigrescens, n, sp. 
P. subater squamis albidis robustis variegatus et parce nigro-pubes- 
cens, elytris subquadrato-ovatis sat profunde subruguloso-punc- 
tatis, fasciis duabus (sc. basali obsoletissima diffusa et subpostica 
plus minus distincta) albidis ornatis, antennis pedibusque sub- 
gracilibus nigrescentibus. 
Variat Gmmaturus) pedibus dilutioribus, 
Long. corp. lin. 1, 
- P. deep-black, sometimes with a piceous tinge, and more or less 
variegated with white, robust scales, which are intermixed with a 
short, black pubescence. Prothorax rather short, and rounded at 
the edges ; densely clothed with white scales towards the sides, 
the disk (except a medial line) being black,—the darker pubes- 
cence more erect and rigid than on the elytra. Hlytra subquadrate- 
ovate,—having an almost equal tendency to a squareness of outline 
(caused by the shoulders being somewhat less rounded-off, the 
sides less expanded in the middle, and the apex more suddenly bent 
inwards, or truncated, than in either of the two preceding species) 
as in the P. fragilis; rather deeply punctured (the punctures 
being almost as large as those of the fragilis, but the surface much 
more rugulose than in that insect) ; with the dark pubescence finer, 
and more dense and decumbent, than on the prothorax; and with 
the postmedial fascia of white scales at times tolerably apparent, 
the basal one being generally obsolete. Limbs rather slender 
(especially the antenn, which are moreover shorter than those of 
the albopictus) and inclining to black,—the legs however in imma- 
ture specimens being more or less ferruginous. 
The present Ptinus and the following one may be readily known 
from the other species here enumerated by their basally distant an- 
tennee, dark surfaces, and rather more quadrate elytra: whilst the 
P. nigrescens may be at once recognized from its ally by (inter alia) 
its much longer, darker, and less fragile limbs, more pubescent 
