Atlantie Coleoptera. 215 
p. 23 (genus Huryenaruus). 
(Sp. 59) Hurygnathus Latreillic. 
The slightly altered phasis of this insect which obtains 
on the Deserta Grande, constituting the “‘ var. 8” of my 
‘Insecta Maderensia,’ has lately been described by the 
Baron Chaudoir (Rev. et Mag. Zool. 121; 1869) as a 
separate species, under the title of H. parallelus ; but I 
am nevertheless persuaded that the small characters 
which distinguish it are completely worthless in a specific 
point of view, and cannot be supposed to indicate more 
than an unimportant insular variety. Indeed, I have 
already expressed this conviction in no less than three 
publications; and I may add that I twice submitted 
Desertan examples to the late Dr. Schaum, who affirmed 
in the strongest terms that they ought not on any 
account to be treated as more than a trifling modifica- 
tion, or race, of the Porto-Santan type. My belief is, 
that Chaudoir’s conclusion is utterly untenable ; whilst 
to cite the insect as simply from “ Madeira” conveys an 
altogether false impression of its habitat, and fails to 
imply that the form in question may be (and probably 
is) a mere insular one. Although from the Madeiran 
archipelago, Hurygnathus has never yet, in point of fact, 
been detected in ‘‘ Madeira” at all, it being peculiar (so 
far as hitherto observed) to Porto Santo and the Deserta 
Grande,—on the latter of which islands it assumes a 
slightly altered phasis (being, on the average, a little 
larger and more parallel, and with the sides of its pro- 
thorax somewhat broader and more recurved). And this 
leads me to remark how dangerous a practice it is, with- 
out some knowledge of the localities which they frequent, 
to describe every slightly differing form as necessarily a 
specific one ; for I do not hesitate to assert that nearly 
every species which permeates these widely scattered 
archipelagos will be found (when closely inspected) to 
possess some little peculiar feature for each individual 
islet on which it occurs; and to treat, therefore, all these 
infinitesimal phases as specific is, to my mind, most unphi- 
losophical ; for that aborigimally distinct species should 
have been brought into existence for every oceanic rock 
which happens to have become detached from the cen- 
tral mass, is a thesis which few, I think, would endeavour 
to uphold, and one which seems to me to carry along 
with it its own immediate refutation. 
Q 2 
