Mr. T. V. Wollaston on the Camtrian Malacoderms. 439 



Whether there be more than a single species included in the above 

 diagnosis, I will not undertake to pronounce for certain ; neverthe- 

 less, since the insect is without doubt a very variable one, both in 

 size and sculpture, I am inclined to think, after a careful examina- 

 tion of many specimens collected in three of the islands and at dif- 

 ferent altitudes, that the " varieties " which I have indicated are but 

 local phases which may be connected sufficiently well with what I 

 have regarded as the tj^^e. This latter is eminently attached to the 

 intermediate and higher elevations of Teneriffe, occurring at the 

 Agua Mansa, and on the lofty Cumbre above it, as well as on the 

 opposite one adjoining the Canadas, It is almost always of a bright- 

 aeneous hue, and has its prothorax moderately punctured. The 

 examples in the lower regions (at Orotava, Garachico, &c., at the 

 latter of which it was captured by the Rev. R. T. Lowe) have their 

 prothoracic punctures perhaps a trifle more dense, whilst those from 

 the wooded slopes above Taganana have them denser still. These 

 last (" var. /3 ") correspond, thus far, with the specimens from the 

 island of Palma, which have a thickly, though minutely, punctulated 

 prothorax ; but I have been perfectly unable to draw a line of 

 demarcation between them and those collected from the blossoms of 

 the Retama on the Cumbres of Teneriffe. The few which I met 

 with in Grand Canary (in the district of El Monte) are blacker ; but 

 I do not believe that they are specifically distinct. 



The variations, however, of this Attains do not amoimt to much 

 primd facie, since they are scarcely conspicuous except imder a high 

 magnifying power. It may be known generalhj by its aeneous hue, 

 and the small size to which it descends ; by its rather pubescent and 

 more or less finely punctulated surface ; and by its usually dark, and 

 not very robust (indeed more frequently slender), limbs. 



Genus Micromtmetes (nov. gen.). (PL XX. fig. 5.) 



Corpus (in utroque sexu alatum), instrumenta cibaria et pedes fere lit in 

 Attala et Pecteropo ; sed captte paulo majore et (una ciuu prothorace) 

 convexiore, in utroque sexu simili ; et tarsis anticis (5 h) in marihus 4- 

 articulatis, simplicibiis (nee articulo secundo supra producto). 



Obs. — A genere Troglops palponun maxillarium (5 a) articulo ultimo 

 elongato-fusiformi aut potius conico (a basi usque ad apicem regulaiiter 

 acuminato), capite miuore convexo siibovali in utroque sexu simili, 

 prothorace postice subrotundato-latiusculo (nee basi angustato), an- 

 tennis articidisque singulatim multo brevioribus, prfeter csetera, differt. 



A fiiKpos, parvus, et /ii/xr^TJ)?, imitator. 



[Tvpus — Micromimetes ahdaceus,'\ 



The insect from which the above characters have been drawn 



