226 



ANOBIAD^E. 



A Canarian Anobium which is probably universal throughout the 

 archipelago, though as yet it has been observed only in Teneriffe, 

 Gomera, and Hierro. It occurs principally about houses and culti- 

 vated grounds at low and intermediate altitudes, but is in reality 

 attached to the old wood of various trees, particularly of the Pig. 

 The Messrs. Crotch however met with it likewise in willows, an 

 even in Euphorbias. 



The examination of further material, collected by the Messrs 

 Crotch in Gomera and Hierro, inclines me to believe that the speci- 

 men from the former of those islands which I regarded in my Cana- 

 rian Catalogue as conspecific with the velatum is better referred to 

 the villosum ; in which case it would follow that the velatum has, 

 at the Canaries, been met with hitherto only in Lanzarote. The 

 two insects however are so nearly allied to each other that I do not 

 feel perfectly satisfied that they may not, after all, be but modifi- 

 cations of a single species. 



639. Anobium velatum. 



Anobium velatum, WolL, Ins. Mad. 276, tab. v. f. 3 (1854). 



, Id., Cat. Mad. Col. 92 (1857). 



, Id., Ann. Nat. Hist. vii. 18 (1861). 



, Id., Cat. Can. Col. 249 (1864). 



Habitat Maderenses (Mad., Bugio) et Canarienses (Lanz.}, in locis 

 similibus ac prsecedens. 



As already implied, this species is very closely related to the pre- 

 ceding one and, apparently, with much the same habits. It has 

 been captured in Madeira proper, and even on the southern Deserta (or 

 Bugio); and we may expect it to occur in Porto Santo likewise. 

 Indeed I believe that it attaches itself to (amongst other trees) the 

 old vines ; and if so, this may account for its presence on the Bugio 

 on one of the lower slopes of which I saw evident traces of former 

 cultivation. The only Canarian example of it which has yet come 

 beneath my notice I found (dead) in a house at Haria, in the north 

 of Lanzarote. Its pubescence is not quite so much developed as is 



the villosum). The mistake doubtless arose from M. Brulle having erroneously 

 referred the Canarian species to the villosum of Dejean's Catalogue, which is 

 properly the hirtum of Illiger. If my " type " from the south of France be truly 

 typical, I believe that the A. hirtum, Illig. (=villosum, Bonelli, ined., and of 

 Dej. Cat.) is distinct both from the villosum of M. Brulle' s inaccurate Canarian 

 list, and the velatum. The Canarian insect however ought scarcely perhaps to 

 be quoted as the villosum of Brulle ; for the few words in which the latter alludes 

 to it are absolutely no kind of " description " at all ; perhaps indeed they did 

 not even profess to be so. 



