MADEIRAN COLEOPTERA. 145 
on the prothorax) sparingly intermixed,—a peculiarity of sculp- 
ture which is only distinguishable beneath the microscope. Scu- 
tellum distinct, and semicireular,—being rounded and obtuse be- 
hind. Jimbs diluted-testaceous. 
The unique Madeiran specimen from which the above description 
has been drawn out agrees precisely with the O. atomos of our own 
country,—a species which may be readily known from the (more 
common) O. brunnipes by being a little smaller, of a less black (or 
more piceous) hue, and by its limbs being somewhat shorter and 
exceedingly pale. It was detected by myself on the inner wall of 
a house at Camacha (in Madeira proper), during the autumn of 1855; 
and it is worthy of remark that it is usually in similar positions 
(viz. on the white-washed walls of damp out-houses) that it is to be 
met with in England. 
428. Orthoperus atomarius* (fig. 3). 
O. rotundato-ovatus minutissimus piceo-testaceus nitidus haud alu- 
taceus sed punctis sat distinctis obsitus, scutello postice paulo 
acutiore, antennis pedibusque pallido-testaceis, illarum clava vix 
obscuriore. 
“pela 
Long. corp. lin. $-}. 
Pithophilus atomarius, Heer, Fna Col. Helv. i, 433 (1841). 
O. of the same form as the O. atomus, but considerably smaller, of a 
paler hue, being piceo-testaceous (or when immature wholly testa- 
ceous), also somewhat more shining, with the punctures (particu- 
larly of the elytra) much larger and rather more numerous, and 
without any appearance beneath the microscope of the minutely 
alutaceous structure which characterizes the surface of that in- 
sect. Prothorax usually a little darker than the elytra. Sceutel- 
Twn rather smaller, in proportion, than that of the last species, 
and less strictly semicircular,—having a little tendency to be sub- 
acute posteriorly. Limbs rather paler than in the atomus, being 
yery pale testaceous, and with the club alone of the antenne 
slightly duskier. 
Readily known from the last species, not only by its smaller size 
and more pallid hue, but likewise by its very much more distinctly 
punctulated surface, and by its total freedom from the minutely 
alutaceous sculpture which (when viewed beneath the microscope) 
is so apparent in that insect. It is also rather more shining, its 
limbs are paler, and its scutellum is less obtusely rounded behind, 
I have compared it most carefully with two typical examples of the 
Pithophilus atomarius of Heer, communicated by Professor Heer 
himself from Zurich, and I have no hesitation at all in pronouncing 
L 
