CORYLOPHID^E. 93 



267. Orthoperus atomarius. 



Pithopliilus atomarius, Heer, Fna Col. Helv. 433 (1841). 

 Orthoperus atomarius, Wall, Cat. Mad. Col. 145, f. 3 (1857). 



, Duval, Gen. des Col. d'Eur. ii. 236, pi. 57. f. 283 (1859). 



Habitat Maderenses (Mad.), ad muros in domibus cellisque, passim. 



Likewise a European species, and one which is met with in 

 Madeira proper. Its habits appear to be much the same as those of 

 the 0. atomus, the insect occurring for the most part on the damp 

 inner walls of houses which have been long shut up and untenanted. 

 In the " Pilgrims' House" at S. Antonio da Serra I once met with it 

 abundantly, crawling out of the crevices of the wainscot and white- 

 wash in company ivith the Calyptomerus dubius and the Mycetcea 

 hirta ; and I likewise captured it in a house at Feijaa d'Ovelha. 



Genus 84. GL(EOSOMA. 

 Wollaston, Ins. Mad. 480 (July, 1854). 



M. Jacq. Duval, in the ' Gen. des Coleopt. d'Europe,' has cited this 

 genus as identical with his Moronillus ; and the subsequent Euro- 

 pean Catalogues have acted on his conclusions, assuming them to be 

 necessarily correct. Yet it is not pnly a fact that he had never even 

 seen Glceosoma, but equally true that both my description and figure 

 of it give the antennae as 10-articulate, whilst he distinctly claims 

 eleven joints for Moronillus. And, not content with thus ignoring 

 altogether this important structural discrepancy, he then proceeds 

 to make use of my published details of Gloeosoma to fill up the gaps 

 in his own imperfect diagnosis of Moronillus ! Unfortunately the 

 only specimen of the latter which (through the kindness of Mr. G. R. 

 Crotch) I have been enabled to dissect has its antennae broken off, 

 so that I cannot speak of those organs from personal observation ; 

 but I have re-examined Gloeosoma with great care, and I am not 

 only satisfied that its antennae are composed of merely ten joints, 

 but also that the admirable drawing which Professor Westwood 

 prepared for my ' Ins. Mad.' is (as regards the very curious propor- 

 tions of the joints themselves) remarkably correct. Now, although 

 Duval appears to have failed in extracting the entire oral organs of 

 Moronillus, he at least obtained a perfect view of an antenna ; and 

 the figure which he has given of it in his ' Genera,' when compared 

 with the corresponding one of Gloeosoma in my ' Ins. Mad.,' will not 

 only show its articulations to be eleven in number but also of a 

 different shape inter se from those of the latter; so that, unless 



