98 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on certain Coleoptera 



E. sticiicus is apt to assume, I am nevertheless induced to regard 

 the present Eunectes as truly distinct from it, through the fact 

 of its possessing several minute structural characters (apart from 

 the less important but not unsuggestive ones of markings and 

 colour) which would tend to separate it from that insect. It 

 would seem probable, indeed, that a small cluster of indubitable 

 species may yet be brought to light from a close observation of 

 the supposed " geographical states " of the sticiicus, — its evident 

 powers of variation having, not unnaturally, been taken advan- 

 tage of to cast into one discordant, unexamined mass many 

 nearly allied forms, which, nevertheless, have not ever been 

 connected with their assumed prototype. In fact, until Erichson 

 described two new exponents of the group (the E. australis from 

 Van Diemen*s Land, and the occidentalis from Peru), everything 

 was looked upon indiscriminately as an aberration of the Linnsean 

 original; and yet I am satisfied, after a careful comparison of them, 

 that I have, even myself, three additional species (of which the 

 present is one), from the Cape de Verdes, Canaries, and Madeira 

 respectively. Through the kindness of my friend the Rev. Hamlet 

 Clark, I have been enabled to overhaul a very extensive series of 

 the members of this genus, and from localities far removed inter 

 se ; and I have come to the conclusion that, although the E. stic- 

 ticus is very unstable in its fascia and fragmentary patches, it 

 nevertheless retains its essential features of form and sculpture 

 in a remarkably constant manner ; so that I have never myself 

 found any difficulty in at once identifying it. 



The E. conicollis is just perceptibly narrower than the stic- 

 ticus *, and has the edges of its prothorax (although very oblique) 

 excessively straight, and free from any tendency to curvature ; 

 its scutellum is rather more triangular (being less obtusely 

 rounded behind) ; its clypeus is somewhat less emarginate in 

 front ; and its threefold series of elytral points are more evidently 

 impressed. Associated with these small distinctions, its frontal 

 macula -is very much larger than is the case, I believe, in any of 

 the known varieties of the sticticus, — being, instead of small 

 and transverse, more or less suffused, and bipartite anteriorly ; 

 its prothoracic vitta is thicker, but more abbreviated laterally ; 



* 1 subjoin the following diagnostic description of the sticticus, drawn 

 out from many varieties, which will sufficiently express its characters, 

 when compared with the corresponding ones of the conicollis ; — 



E. ovatus, luteo-griseus, clypeo antice emarginato ; capite postice nigro 

 et macula frontali parva transversa ornato ; jjrothorace vitta transversa 

 interrupta ornato, ad latera oblique subcurvato, angulis posticis obtu- 

 siusculis; scutello sub-semicirculari ; elytris punctis magnis triplici 

 serie et punctulis minoribus nigro-notatis, utroque maciilis duabus 

 parvis sublateralibus et fascia transversa dentata postica (plus minus 

 obsoleta) nigro-ornato. — Long. corp. lin. 5^-6|. 



