PTILIAD.E. 97 



Acrotrichis is so closely allied to a species from Ceylon ! (the A. 

 oriental-is, Mots., Etud. Ent. vii. 52, A.D. 1858) that he does not feel 

 at all satisfied (despite the existence of a few very minute, and un- 

 important, differences) that the two are not absolutely identical. 

 If this should be true, it will certainly afford a difficult problem on 

 the subject of geographical distribution ; for there is no member of 

 the fauna more unmistakeably indigenous to Madeira, or less likely 

 to become accidentally diffused (even to a short distance, and there- 

 fore a fortiori to a country so remote as southern India), as the 

 A. umbricola which seems to be confined to the higher elevations 

 of that ^sland, above the inhabited districts. In that case it will 

 supply another fact, of a small category, for which the usual laws of 

 insect-migration afford us no kind of clue ; and a somewhat analo- 

 gous instance may be adduced in the common European Metabletus 

 obscuroguttatus (likewise abundant on the mountains of Madeira 

 proper), which is stated to occur on the Himalayas. 



273. Acrotrichis Matthewsii. 

 Acrotrichis Matthewsii, Woll., Cat. Can. Col 103 (1864). 



Habitat Canarienses (Palmam), sub foliis dejectis in humidis sylvaticis 

 editioribus copiose occurrens. 



Observed hitherto only in Palma of the'Canarian Group, where, 

 however, it is so general and abundant that it is difficult to suppose 

 that it does not occur in the other islands likewise, though un- 

 doubtedly it has not yet been detected in any of them. In Palma 

 it is universally diffused over the sylvan regions of a rather high 

 altitude occurring beneath fallen leaves (particularly in the laurel- 

 woods), where it would seem to supply the place of the A. WoUastoni 

 which is so common in similar situations throughout the greater 

 portion of the Canarian archipelago. 



274. Acrotrichis atomaria, 



Dermestes atomarius, De Geer, Ins. iv. 218 (1774). 

 Trichopteryx atomaria, Gillm., in Sturm, D. F. xvii. 46 (1845). 

 Acratrichis quadrata, Mots., Bull. cU Moscou, ii. 528 (1845). 

 - fascicularis, Woll. [nee Hbsf], Ins. Mad. 108 (1854). 

 _, Id. [- -], Cat. Mad. Col. 35 (1857). 



Habitat Maderenses (Mad.}, sub quisquiliis foliisque dejectis per 

 regiones sylvaticas vulgatissima. 



The European A. atomaria abounds beneath fallen leaves, and 

 other vegetable refuse, in Madeira proper, principally at inter- 



