388 • Mr. T. Vernon Wollaston on 



to any known sub-family or group — ilic structure of its four 

 hinder tarsi and oilier minuticG being quite iniintelligible witiiout 

 the aid of some collateral form to suggest a partial explanation. 

 But, granting its kinship with Pciilatcmnus and Lciponitmtla, we at 

 once connect it with the I\fesnxcni (of Madeira and Tenerifte), 

 which Pcittalanniis manifestly approaches, and thence with Pcu- 

 lart/iritin and the typical Cossonides. 



'J'he burrowing ])ropensity of the representatives of these three 

 genera {Pentalemnus, Leipommala and Onycliolips) cannot be too 

 prominently brought forward — not simply because of its eccen- 

 tricity amongst the Cossonideous groups, but likewise because 

 the whole details of their structure, except {apparently) their 

 more or less hirsute bodies, are in perfect keeping with this in- 

 stinct of their nature ; for, whilst all of them are blind (eyes being 

 useless for creatures which never intentionally api)roach the light) 

 and apterous, I.dpommala and Pcnlalcmnus have the invcr apical- 

 anole of their tibisc (a very rare circumstance in the true Rhynclio- 

 pliora) produced into an acute spine, their antepenultimate tarsal- 

 joint (the usual dilatation of which implies a power of adhesion to 

 the foliage and stems of plants) almost unexpandcd, and their 

 elytra connate ; whilst in Oiiycholips the four posterior tibise are 

 powerfully spinulose along their outer edge (after the fashion of 

 many of the Lameliicorns), and have their feet (of which here- 

 after) most abnormally furnished with compressed divaricating 

 spiniform lobes, 



27. Pcntatenifius arcnaritis, n. sp. (PI. 19, fig. 1.) 



/-*. angusto-cllipticus, piceus, pilis longis sub-erectis moUibus 

 cinereis parce vestitus ; prothorace longiusculo, sub-conico, 

 valde profunde et distincte punctato ; elytris transversin 

 rugulosis, sub-seriatim punctatis ; antennis jjcdibusque paulo 

 rufescentioribus. 



Occurrit pilis plus minus attritis, — corpore sub-calvo. 



Long. Corp. lin. 1 -^ — 11. 



Habitat insulas Lanzarote, Fuerteventura et Gran Canaria, ad 

 radices plantarum (prsesertim Zygophyllam Fontanesii, Webb) in 

 arenosis aridis submaritimis crescentium, hinc inde hand infre- 

 qucns. 



Although the present insect would never be found by any one 

 who was unacquainted with its habits, it is nevertheless far from 

 uncommon when searched for in its proper localities. It occurs, 



