CARABID^E. 



supplied the type from which my diagnosis of the species was drawn 

 out) the pro thorax is a little wider behind than in either the ordinary 

 Gomeran ones or in those from Madeira (which last constitute the 

 vars. " /3 " and " y," in my ' Ins. Mad.,' of the D. sigma} *. 



Assuming "therefore that no second species is indicated amongst 

 the many slightly different forms which I have treated (and, I believe, 

 correctly) as but local states, or modifications, of the eUiptipennis, 

 the present Dromius may be said to have been captured in Madeira 

 proper, as well as in Teneriffe, Gomera, and Hierro, of the Canarian 

 Group. 



41. Dromius sigma. 



Carabus sigma, Rossi, Fna Etrusc. i. 226 (1790). 

 Dromius sigma (p.), WolL, Ins. Mad. 5 (1854). 



( ), Id., Cat. Mad. Col S (1857). 



, Id., Cat. Can. Col. 13 (1864). 



Habitat Maderenses (Mad., P* S', Des.) et Canarienses (Can., Ten. 

 in intermediis et valdc elevatis, usque ad 9000' s. m. parce as- 

 cendens. 



. 



The European D. sigma occurs sparingly both at the Madeiras and 

 Canaries, principally (beneath stones) in open spots of a rather high 

 elevation; but I think that the examples from the former Group 

 (especially the Porto-Santan ones) are more typical than those from 

 the latter. It is essentially, however, a variable insect not only in 

 the development of its zigzag fascia, but even in the exact shape and 

 tint of its prothorax. Thus the Madeiran specimens would seem on the 

 average to have the former narrower, and their prothorax a trifle 

 wider (and more margined) behind, than is the case with the Cana- 

 rian ones ; but I can see nothing about any of them to warrant the 

 suspicion that they are more than geographical, or insular, states of 



constitutes the detached extremity of the Sao Louren^o promontory has the 

 above characters, of opacity and the development of its darker portions, so much 

 exaggerated that I at first thought that it must be the representative of a distinct 

 species. Ultimately, however, I recorded it (in my ' Ins. Mad.') as a " var. y " 

 of the D. sigma. 



* A considerable series of Gomeran specimens, which were captured by the 

 Messrs. Crotch, seem to me to present sufficient differences from the ordinary 

 Teneriffan type to render it" desirable to treat them as an insular variety. They 

 differ in being a little smaller the prothorax especially being less developed, 

 as well as relatively narrower and more cordate (or attenuated behind) and less 

 margined at the sides, and in their elytra being if anything a frifleless elliptical, 

 with the fascia a little less broad or thickened. This particular state may be 

 recorded, briefly, thus : 



Var. j3. parvicollis. Vix minor, prothorace sensim minore, paulo magis cor- 

 dato, postice ad latera minus explanate marginato, elytrorum fascia paulo minore 

 (i. e. longitudinaliter angustiore). 



