180 MADEIRAN COLEOPTERA. 
Ribeira d’Escalas, and at the head of the 8* Cruz ravine at 8. Antonio 
da Serra. 
509. Oxypoda rugifrons. 
Oxypoda litigiosa, Woll. [nec Heer, 1841], Ins. Mad. 558 (1854). 
Inhabits Madeira proper, occurring sparingly (I believe, in the 
dung of cattle) around Funchal. There are few insects which have 
given me more trouble than this obseure little Oxypoda. In 1854 
I referred it to the Litigiosa of Heer, with specimens of which, in my 
possession (from the collection of M. Chevrier of Geneva), it appeared 
to me sufficiently to coincide; and from which, even now, I do not 
consider that it is specifically far removed. Since that species, how- 
ever, is referred by Kraatz to the cwniculina of Erichson (= brevi- 
cornis, Sturm), and since the Madeiran one is certainly distinct from 
the cuniculina (as I have completely satisfied myself from the most 
accurate examination of a recent series of the latter, determined by 
Dr. Kraatz and revised by Mr. Waterhouse), it is just possible that 
my Swiss examples may be wrongly identified with the ltigiosa,— 
for I will not suppose that Kraatz was mistaken in assigning Heer’s 
insect? to the cuniculina. Be this however as it may, the Madeiran 
species presents, I think (on a closer inquiry), sufficient characters to 
warrant its removal from even the Swiss one, and therefore @ fortiori 
from cuniculina proper. From the first, its more roughly sculptured 
head, anteriorly narrowed prothorax, and more rounded shoulders, 
principally distinguish it; whilst from the second, its much smaller 
bulk and move fusiform outline, in conjunction with its more opake 
and darker surface, its less robust antenne, and the totally different 
sculpture of its head (which is as densely punctured as, and more 
rugosely than, the prothorax,—instead of being comparatively re- 
motely so, and with the punctures well defined), will at once serve 
to characterize it. 
Genus 211. ALEOCHARA. 
Gravenhorst, Col. Micropt. 67 (1802). 
510. Aleochara puberula*. 
Aleochara puberula, Klug, Col. Madagase. 51 (1833). 
, Lrich., Gen. et Spee. Staph. 165 (1889). 
—— Armitagei, Woll., Ins. Mad. 559 (1854). 
‘Inhabits Madeira and Porto Santo; occurring in the dung of cattle 


+ I may state, however, that ¢f my specimens from M. Chevrier’s collection 
be rightly determined, I have but little doubt that Heer’s insect zs specifically 
distinct from Erichson’s,—its smaller size, and the closer sculpture of its more 
posteriorly truncated head, seeming to imply, apart from other characters, that 
it should scarcely be referred to the ewniculina. 
