158 



TELMATOPHILID^. 



This common European insect will most likely (when searched for 

 in the proper localities) be found to be universal within the inhabited 

 districts of these Atlantic islands, where perhaps it may have become 

 established from more northern latitudes. It occurs beneath vege- 

 table refuse, particularly in and about gardens and fields, and has 

 been observed hitherto in Madeira proper, as well as in Lanzarote, 

 Fuerteventura, Teneriffe, and Gomera, of the Canarian Group. 



Fam. 25. TELMATOPHILIRE. 



Genus 140. THALLESTUS. 

 Wollaston, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. 153 (1862), 



452. Thallestus typhaeoides. 



ThaUestus typhseoides, WoU. y loc. eft. 155, pi. 7. f. 6 (1862). 

 , Id., Cat. Can. Col 135 (1864). 



Habitat Canarienses ((7om.), plantas Euphorbias canariensis putridas 

 copiose destruens. 



Detected hitherto only in Gomera, of the Canarian Group, where 

 it is locally abundant within the putrid stalks of the Euphorbia cana- 

 riensis. In such situations I took it commonly on the hills above 

 San Sebastian ; and an extensive series is now before me, captured 

 by the Messrs. Crotch during their late sojourn in Gomera. Some 

 of the latter specimens differ a little from my own in having their 

 prothorax appreciably longer and more conical, as well as somewhat 

 more deeply punctured and obscurer in colour * ; but there seems to 

 be every intermediate grade between the two forms, and, since I have 

 failed entirely to draw a line of demarcation between them, I cannot 

 but conclude that the shape and tint of the prothorax is subject to 

 some slight amount of variation. 



453. Thallestus subellipticus. 



Thallestus subellipticus, Wott. loc. cit. 155. pL 7. f. 4 (1862). 

 _, u, y Cat. Can. Col. 134 (1864). 



Habitat Canarienses (Ten.}, inlocis similibus acpra3cedens sed rarior. 



* I would, however, just express this state in the following short formula, and 

 I have given it a subspecific name in the event of characters which I may possibly 

 have overlooked proving it ultimately to be distinct: 



Var. j3. obscuricollis [an species ?]. Prothorace paulo longiore, magis conico, 

 obscuriore profundiusque punctate ; elytris vix grossius striato-punctatis. 



