382 Mr. T. V. WoUaston on the Tarphii. 



probably require an a priori treatment rather than an a posteriori 

 one. Principles such as these, which have been regarded hitherto 

 as axioms, are strictly "truths of reason," and rest upon too broad 

 a basis to be affected by our deductions (often very equivocal ones) 

 from a few isolated facts which may appear at first sight to contra- 

 dict them, and which may generally be met by an equal number of 

 " facts " (so-called) telling, or seeming to teU, a precisely opposite 

 tale. They belong rather to the very foundations of our behef, and 

 must be examined by analyzing our own minds. So that, if we 

 would sift this problem satisfactorily, we must needs begin with the 

 most elementary considerations ; for otherwise all subsequent argu- 

 ments, however carefully conducted, will only lead us deeper into 

 error, since it is clear that, if we set out with our hacTcs iipon the 

 truth, the further we go the more we shall recede from it. 



The following nine Tarjyliii (which I propose now to describe) are 

 peculiar to the Canaries, and were detected during my explorations, 

 in company with the Rev. R. T. Lowe, in those islands. Probably 

 there are many species yet to be discovered ; for the extensive sylvan 

 range on the western side of Hierro I have but just glanced at, whilst 

 the laurel- districts of Gomera and the remains of the ancient forest 

 of El Dorames in Grand Canary are totally unexamined. 



§ I. Corpus plus minus distincte setosum. 



1. Tarphius simplex, n. sp. (PI. XIX. fig. 1.) 



T. angustulo-obloagus, graniilis squamisqiie parvis fuscis parce vestitus et 

 setiilis brevibus suberectis paulo pallidioribus tectus ; prothorace lon- 

 giusculo, angiistulo, subparallelo {i. e. antics et postice vix angustiore) ; 

 elytris vix nodosis (nodis subobsoletis sed plerumque paulo rufescentio- 

 ribus) et tuberciilis in seriebus longitudinalibus distinctius positis ; 

 antennis pedibusque rufo-feiTugineis. 



Long. corp. lin. lJ-2. 



Habitat in sylvaticis editioribus Teneriffse, sub truncis ramulisque laurorum 

 prolapsis, baud infrequens. 



The rather narrower and more strictly oblong outline of the present 

 Tarphius, in conjunction with its somewhat long and narrow pro- 

 thorax (which is scarcely at all expanded in the middle or constricted 

 behind), and its comparatively undeveloped and usually more or less 

 obscurely subrufescent elytral nodules, and the tendency of its elytral 

 tubercles to be more decidedly arranged in longitudinal rows, will at 

 once separate it from the other species here described. It is not un- 

 common within the laurel -districts of Teneriffe ; I have taken it at 



