144 MADEIRAN COLEOPTERA. 
than four depends is extremely difficult to detect,—especially in the 
common brunnipes, where it certainly would not be recognized to 
exist at all, did not its less dubious [?] occurrence in the diminutive 
atomarius afford us grounds (a@ prior?) for suspicion that it would 
be there. It was indeed owing to the fact of Heer having described 
his Pithophilus as pentamerous, that Redtenbacher constituted the 
genus Microsphera ; for the latter expressly mentions that he should 
have regarded his insect as congeneric with Heer’s, had not its tarsi 
been 4-jointed. My own belief however (as just stated) is, that the 
Orthoperi are in reality tetramerous, like the rest of the Clypeastres ; 
and such moreover is the opinion of Mr. Haliday, whose intimate 
acquaintance with these minute groups, and very accurate powers of 
microscopic observation,—not to mention his extreme liberality in 
imparting his knowledge to others,—I have had abundant oppor- 
tunities of testing. 
The genus was first established by Stephens; albeit his characters 
are so absurdly erroneous, that it seems doubtful whether, strictly, 
Heer’s correcter description of it (although subsequent in publi- 
cation) should not have the preference. 
Regarding its position (which is still much disputed) in a natural 
system, it appears to me that it is scarcely possible to separate it 
from the Corylophide. Indeed in the number and proportions of its 
antennal joints, as well as in its unspurred tibie (the anterior pair 
of which are slightly arcuated, and have their internal apical angle 
inwardly curved), it is almost coincident with Corylophus proper ; 
whilst in the greatly inflated second joint of its palpi, and its largely 
developed, unveined, and ciliated wings, it partakes of the charac- 
teristics of the entire family very significantly. In the reduced 
dimensions however of the fourth articulation of its antenne, from 
the apex, it assimilates (along with Corylophus and Glaosoma) some 
of the typical members of the Anisotomidw,—into which group it is 
actually admitted by many Coleopterists. 
427. Orthoperus atomus*. 
O. rotundato-ovatus subnitidus subtilissime alutaceus punctulisque 
minutissimis parce obsitus, scutello postice rotundato obtuso, an- 
tennis pedibusque diluto-testaceis, 
Long. corp. lin. 4. 
Cryptophagus atomus, Gyll., Ins. Suec. i. 185 (1808). 
O. rounded-ovate, convex, piceous or rufo-piceous, slightly shining, 
free from pubescence, most delicately and closely alutaceous all 
over, and with most minutely impressed points (which are obsolete 
