303 Mr. T.. V. Wollaston on certain Coleoptera 



Fam. Aphodiadae. 



Genus Oxyomus. 



(Eschsch.) De Casteln., Hist. ii. 98 (1840). 



3. Oxyomus Heinekeni, WoU. 



Oxyomus Heinekeni, WoU., Ins. Mad. 228 (1854). 

 , Woll., Cat. Mad. Col. 79 (1857). 



Two males of the present Oxyomus were amongst Mr. Bewicke's 

 captures at Ascension ; and, not having until now observed the 

 sexual characters of the species, I had at first imagined them to be 

 distinct from the ordinary Madeiran one ; but having just looked 

 more closely into specimens of the latter, I perceive in them also 

 small structural differences pertaining to the male sex which are 

 not noticed in the ' Insecta Maderensia.' Thus, the males are 

 not only more shining than the females, but the external edge 

 of their front tibise is much more powerfully tridentate, whilst 

 their four hinder ones have their spurs more elongate and sub- 

 flexuose, and their outer apical angle produced into a much 

 longer and acuter spine. The elytra of the two examples from 

 Ascension have the appearance of being a trifle more convex and 

 shortened posteriorly than those of the Madeiran ones (so as 

 scarcely to conceal the pygidium) ; but I think this is perhaps 

 more apparent than real, their abdomen having probably been 

 inflated in the spirits of wine, and not having completely col- 

 lapsed in drying. 



Fam. CleridsB. 



Genus Necrobia. 



Olivier, Entom. iv. 76 bis (1795). 



4. Necrobia rufipes, Thunb. 



Anobium rufipes, Thunb., Nov. Ins. Spec. i. 10 (1781). 



Dermestes rufipes. Fab., Ent. Syst. i. 230 (1792). 



Corynetes rujipes, Klug, Abh. der Wissensch. Akad. zu Berl. 340 (1840). 



This widely distributed insect appears to have established 

 itself at Ascension, from whence I have many examples collected 

 by Mr. Bewicke. I have taken it abundantly in the Canary 

 Islands, and at Mogador, on the opposite coast of Morocco ; 

 and it was likewise found by Mr. Bewicke at the Cape of Good 

 Hope. The Ascension specimens are, on the average, of rather 

 a small size, and the subclaval joints of their antennae are not so 

 distinctly dark as in the ordinary individuals — occasionally only 

 the club itself being black, whereas in general the three articu- 

 lations preceding it are as much darkened as the clava. 



