306 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on the Coleoptera of St. Helena. 



are coarsely and closely punctured, or crenate, and there are 

 two' large punctiform impressions on the third interval from 

 the suture. 



Fam. 2. Sphseridiadae. 



Genus 5. Dactylosternum. 



Wollaston, Ins. Mad. 99 (1854). 



6. Dactylosternum abdominale. 



Sphceridium ahdominale, Fab., Ent, Syst. i. 79 (1792). 

 Dactylosternum Roussetii, Woll., Ins. Mad. 99, tab. iii. f. 1 (1854). 



abdominale, Id., Col. Atl. 80 (1865). 



, Id., Col. Hesp. 48 (1867). 



Several specimens of this widely spread insect were taken 

 in St. Helena by Mr. Melliss, and there can be no doubt that 

 the species has become naturalized in the island through 

 human agencies. Although found more particularly in ]\Iedi- 

 terranean latitudes, it has acquired an extended geographical 

 range — occurring in the Azorean, Madeiran, Canarian, and 

 Cape Verde archipelagos, and being reported even from Mada- 

 gascar, Bourbon, and the East Indies. 



Genus 6. Sph^ridium. 

 Fabricius, Syst. Ent. 66 (1775). 



7. Sphceridium dytiscoides. 



S. " fermgineum, elytris atris. Habitat in ins. St. Helense. Mus. 

 Dom. Banks. Statura et magnitude S. scarabceoides ; totum gla- 

 bram, nitidum. Autennse rufoe, perfohatse. Caput, thorax, 

 pectus, abdomen rufa ; elytra atra, glabra." [Ex Fab7-icio.'] 



Sphceridium dytiscoides, Fab., Syst. Ent. 67 (1775). 



, Oliv., Ent. 2. 15, tab. 2. f. 10 (1790). 



^ Fab., Ent. Syst. i. 79 (1792). 



, Id., Syst. Eleu. i. 94 (1801). 



I have no means of determining what this insect (the dia- 

 gnosis of which I have copied verbatim from the ' Systema En- 

 tomologise ' ) really is ; but, judging from the rough figm-e of it 

 which is given by Olivier, it would appear to me to be either 

 a true (though possibly small) Splwridmm or else an unusu- 

 ally large Cercyon^ or (still more probably perhaps) a Cyclo- 

 notum — with the head and prothorax rufo-ferruginous and the 

 elytra black. Nevertheless, as it was described by Fabricius 

 from a specimen (or specimens) in the cabinet of Sir Joseph 

 Banks, which had been obtained at St. Helena, I have no 

 choice but to include it in the present enumeration ; and I can 

 only hope that some future collector in the island may again 



