MALACHIAD.E. 195 



modification of it, had I not been informed by Kiesen wetter (who 

 examined it carefully, after having compiled his elaborate Monograph 

 of the group) that he considered it to be specifically distinct. 



Fam. 42. MALACHIAD^. 



Genus 177. MALACHIUS. 

 Fabricius, Syst. Ent. i. 221 (1792). 



554. Malachius militaris. 



Malachius militaris, Woll., Ins. Mad. 245 (1854). 

 , Id., Cat. Mad. Col. 85 (1857). 



Habitat Maderenses (Mad.), hinc inde ad flores in cultis inferioribus. 



A Malachius which is sometimes tolerably common in the lower 

 elevations of Madeira proper, occurring principally about gardens 

 and other cultivated grounds. I have taken it in and around Funchal ; 

 and specimens have lately been communicated by the Barao do Cas- 

 tello de Paiva. In colour and general aspect it greatly resembles 

 the European M. rubricollis, Mshm, from which however it differs 

 in its very much shorter limbs (the antennae particularly being more 

 abbreviated), in its tarsi and anterior legs having a tendency (more 

 or less expressed) to be diluted in hue, in its prothorax being less 

 transverse (or more narrowed behind) and with a longitudinal black 

 patch (seldom absent) down the disk, and in its elytra being almost 

 free from any appearance of erect blackish additional hairs*. 



* A single example of a Malachius which possibly may prove to be conspecific 

 with the Madeiran M. m/Uitaris, but which I think seems scarcely to differ from 

 the common European M. rubricollis, has been communicated by De Marseul 

 (who informs me that he possesses two more of them) as Canarian ; but since 

 several of the insects in the same consignment are labelled with unmistakeably 

 wrong localities, I feel that I cannot safely admit the species (even whilst pro- 

 fessedly from the collection of M. de la Perraudiere) into this Catalogue. The 

 only point, so far as I can detect, in which the individual before me recedes from 

 the ordinary type consists in its total freedom from pubescence ; nevertheless, as 

 its antennae are broken off, I cannot say this for certain. But, if truly Canarian, 

 it is not impossible that further and more satisfactory material might disclose 

 some other small diagnostic features (either external or structural) ; and I will 

 therefore record it briefly as follows, in the event of its proving ultimately to be 

 distinct from the rubricollis and militaris, and its habitat to be correct : 



Malachius rufoterminatus, n. sp. ? 



M. nitidus, calvus, (oculo fortissime armato) minutissime, vix perspicue punctu- 

 latus ; capite latiusculo elytrisque nigro-cyaneis, his ad apicem prothoraceque 

 laete testaceo-rufis ; [antennis mihi non obviis;] pedibus subcyaneo-nigris. 

 Long. corp. lin. 1. 



Cantharis rubricollis?, Mshm, Ent. Brit. 371 (1802). 

 Habitat ins. Canarienses (sec. cl. De Marseul), mihi non obvius. 



