INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. XXXV11 



us to expect that at any rate a certain number of Coleopterous forms 

 must exist which are dependent on them exclusively ; and perhaps 

 this would be found to be the case, were the upland tracts properly 

 investigated which they frequently almost clothe. Yet hitherto I 

 have not been able to satisfy myself that there are many species in 

 that predicament ; though a few there unquestionably are, as even 

 a slight research is sufficient to demonstrate. Thus the Hispa occator 

 often abounds in Teneriffe and Palma, upon the foliage of the Cisti ; 

 and a dark variety of it was met with, under similar circumstances, 

 by M. de la Perraudiere, in Hierro. In Grand Canary the Pseudo- 

 colaspis obscuripes is common, in like situations; and possibly also 

 the Antliraxia similis may be of Cistus -destroying habits (though I 

 am somewhat doubtful whether the latter is not, rather, attached to 

 the pine trees). The Apion tuliferuin, which I captured in Grand 

 Canary and Hierro, I believe to be dependent on the Cisti andper- 

 Tiaps the Melyrosoma costipenne, the Bruclius antenncttus, and the 

 Calomicrm Wollastoni. 



There is another race of plants, both in the Madeiran and Cana- 

 rian Groups, which constitute a significant feature amongst the native 

 vegetation their large succulent leaves either drooping gracefully 

 over the rocks, or studding the perpendicular sides of them in flat, 

 rosette-like clusters. I refer to the various species of Sedum and 

 Sempervivum, which flourish at most elevations, though principally 

 at intermediate ones. It is difficult to conceive that forms so un- 

 mi&takeably aboriginal, and numerous, should not have a correspond- 

 ingly important fauna attendant upon them ; yet hitherto there are 

 but five representatives of the Coleoptera which have been ascertained 

 positively to require them as a means of actual subsistence. Of these 

 five, no less than four are members of the Curculionidce, one being 

 the Canarian Acfilles ceonii, and the other three the Ceuthorhynchus 

 phytobioides, Jiesperns, and lineatotessellatus (the first two of which 

 occur in the Canarian, and the last in the Madeiran archipelago). 

 The fifth species alluded to as being (I believe) of Sedum-infes ting- 

 habits is the JFaltica crassipes found in Teneriffe, Gomera, Palma, 

 and Hierro. There are many more however to be met with, parti- 

 cularly during the winter months, harbouring beneath the dry and 

 dead leaves which often (at any rate in the compact, rosette-shaped 

 plants) surround the base of the stems and are matted closely against 

 the rocks ; but I have no evidence that any of these are more than 

 casual visitors, which necessity has compelled to take shelter there 

 and to hybernate. Nevertheless some few of them (as, for instance, 



