Atlantic Coleoptera. 275 
one differential character which I have been able to detect 
(slight though it be) must suffice for their specific sepa- 
ration. Fortunately that character is a structural one, 
and I do not perceive that it is subject to any great 
amount of instability. It consists in the exact shape of 
the “heel,” or projecting process which constitutes the 
inner apical angle of the two hinder tibiz in the male 
sex,—a kind of compressed spur, which in the A. nocti- 
vagans terminates in an acute prominent angle, but in 
the allied form from the lower regions in a comparatively 
rounded or obtuse truncate plate. This latter species 
includes the A. lawripotens and australis of my ‘Insecta 
Maderensia ;’ and it is usually, ikewise, a trifle larger, 
on the average, and more densely and softly pubescent, 
than the genuine A. noctivagans of the higher altitudes, 
as well as perhaps alittle more ferruginous or less brightly 
tessellated ; and in order therefore to place on record the 
conclusion at which I have now (again) arrived, that the 
lauripotens (so destructive, and abundant, in the vine- 
yards around Funchal) should be treated as distinct from 
its ally, I will cite it afresh, and correct its synonymy, 
as follows :* — 
Atlantis lauripotens. 
Atlantis lauripotens, Woll., Ins. Mad. 369 (1854). 
Atlantis australis, Id., Ibid. 870 (1854). Atlantis nocti- 
vagans (pars), Id., Cat. Mad. Col. 114 (1857); (pars), 
Id., Col. Atl. 311 (1865). 
Hab.—Maderenses (Mad.); in cultis inferioribus 
abundans: presertim in vinetis ramulos vinearum de- 
struit. 
* Even though abundant, more particularly, in the vineyards of a low 
elevation, I do not think it necessary to adopt the name of australis for 
this species, in preference to that of lawripotens,—(1) because the original 
diagnosis of the latter (in the ‘Ins. Mad.’) agrees more accurately with 
the particular form which I wish now to define, and (2) because I have 
little doubt (since the vine is not truly indigenous to Madeira) that the 
Atlantis in question is in reality a laurel insect (perhaps ccmmon in the 
lower districts before the primeval forests were cleared away) which has 
simply adapted its mode of life to the altered circumstances of the island. 
Whether, however, this ‘‘adaptation”’ may in any way account for the 
slight structural peculiarity which it now presents, it would be idle even 
to speculate. 
