406 Mr. T. Vernon Wollaston 07i 



convex, and more sparingly (and even more minutely) punctulated. 

 Although confined to the rotten stems of the various Euphorbias 

 of the Canary Islands, the present insect and the following one 

 are essentially distinct from the M. Euphorhlce of Madeira; for 

 not only do they differ in the sectional characters already pointed 

 out, but (in addition to numerous other differential features) their 

 elytra are much more coarsely striated (the striae, moreover, being 

 jmnctate instead of crenate), their surface is more shining and of a 

 darker hue (the head and prothorax, and sometimes even the 

 elytra likewise, of the Canarian species being almost or entirely 

 black) ; their forehead is more deeply foveolated, their prothorax 

 is impressed with a few additional larger punctures in the centre 

 behind, their elytral interstices are less rugulose, and the antennae 

 of their female sex are implanted rather further from the extreme 

 base of the rostrum. 



The M. fus'iform'is is most abundant throughout the Canarian 

 rrvoup — Palma being the only one of the seven islands in which, 

 up to the present date, I have not taken it. Being thus universal, 

 however, there can be but little doubt that it must exist in Palma 

 likewise; and the fact of my sojourn there, in May and June of 

 1858, being somewhat late in the season for the Euphorbia insects, 

 may perhaps be a sufficient explanation for its having escaped me 

 in that island. Nevertheless it is certainly remarkable that the 

 few specimens of the genus Mesites which I happened to secure 

 whilst at Palma fi-om the dead stems of the Euphorbias should 

 have been specifically distinct from those which obtain in 

 similar positions throughout the remainder of the archipelago. 

 Nor is this rendered the less curious from the circumstance, that 

 the large M. pershn'ilis, which infests the laurel-woods of Teneriffe, 

 should be, also, represented in the sylvan districts of Palma by an 

 allied but most conspicuous species, the AI. complanaliis ! Tlie 

 M . fusiform'is was first captured by myself and Mr. Gray, during 

 January, 1858, out of the rotten Eiiphorbia-staiks in the north of 

 Lanzarote ; since which period I have, as just stated, found it in 

 all the Canarian islands except Palma. It swarms in the various 

 Euphorbias (though less, perhaps, in the E. cannriensis than in 

 the others), and occurs throughout the whole Euphorbia regions, 

 independent of elevation. 



40. Mesites publpennis, n. sp. 

 M. nigro-piceus, nitidus, depressus, breviter lurido-pubescens ; 

 fronte inter oculos profunde foveolata ; prothorace in disco 

 leviter et parce punctulato, obscure carinato necnon postice 



