310 Ml'. T. V. Wollaston on Additions to Madeiran Coleoptera^ 



in an old river-bed, and at about the same elevation above the 

 sea/^ One of these latter specimens, from the Vasco Gil ravine, 

 has been presented by Mr. Bewicke to the collection of the 

 British Museum, and another to the Madeiran cabinet at 

 Oxford, 



Fam. Staphylinidae. 



Genus Platysthetus. 



Mannerheim, Brachel. 46 (1831). 



12. Platysthetus cornutus, 



P, niger, nitidus ; capite subconvexo, punctate ; prothorace elytrls- 

 que distinctius alutaceis sed levius (sc. levissime) et parcius punc- 

 tulatis ; antennis sabgracilibus ; tarsis testaceis. 



Long. corp. lin. li. 



Habitat prope urbem Funchalensem, specimen unicum cepit Dom« 

 Anderson. 



Oxytelus cornutus, Grav., Col. Micropt. 109 (1802). 

 Platysthetus cornutus, Erichs., Gen. et Spec. Staph. 782 (1839). 



P. black and shining. Head rather convex, or at all events 

 with the forehead not excavated between the antennae, lightly 

 punctured, and with a fine but abbreviated channel in the centre 

 behind. Prothorax and elytra more coarsely alutaceous, but 

 with the punctules smaller, finer, and more remote than those 

 on the head, being, in fact, on the latter almost obsolete : the 

 former with a deep central channel ; the latter apparently undi- 

 luted in hue, being concolorous with the rest of the surface. 

 Antennce rather slender. Tibics somewhat piceous ; tarsi testa- 

 ceous. 



The single specimen from which the above description has 

 been compiled does not appear to differ sufficiently from the 

 common European P. cornutus (which I have taken plentifully 

 at the Canaries) to warrant its being treated as distinct. Never- 

 theless, since it is unfortunately a female one, I am unable to 

 say whether the clypeus of the male sex would afford any cha- 

 racter of specific signification. True it is that its elytra are 

 concolorous with the rest of the surface (instead of being more 

 or less testaceous or diluted on the inner disk of each, as is 

 ordinarily the case), but Ei'ichson expressly mentions that (as in 

 examples he had examined from Syria) the elytra are sometimes 

 altogether black. Its other features seem to agi-ce sufficiently well 

 with the corresponding ones of the P. cornutus^ amongst which 

 its comparatively convex (or unexcavated) forehead, its rather 

 slender antenna?, its alutaceous surface, and the fineness of its 

 punctation may be particularly noticed. The individual de- 

 scribed from was taken near Funchal by Mr. E. A. Anderson, 



