330 



CURCULIONID.E. 



rarissimus. Exemplaria a Gomera minus typica sunt, s< 

 fallor, L. aucto vix omnino discedunt. 



nisi 



Taken by myself (though very sparingly) in Hierro, the most 

 western of the Canarian islands, from beneath stones, about mid- 

 way between Port Hierro and Yalverde. Independently of minor 

 distinctions, the species may easily be recognized by its compara- 

 tively swollen second fimiculus-joint (which is, if anything, a trifle 

 larger than the first not only in length, but even in breadth}, by 

 its freedom from erect setae, and by the rudiments of an obscure 

 glabrous abbreviated keel which is more or less evident in the centre 

 of its prothorax behind. Two examples, however, which are now 

 before me, and which were captured by the Messrs. Crotch in Gomera, 

 seem to be a little smaller, paler, and more deeply sculptured than 

 the Hierro ones, with their short central prothoracic keel rather 

 narrower and more acute (being less triangular, or noduliform), and 

 with their elytra (which, when denuded of the scales, are less 

 shining), more ovate, or more regularly narrowed anteriorly being 

 more rounded off, but less obliquely-truncated, at the shoulders 

 (which are themselves consequently more sharp and porrect). But 

 although thus numerous, I do not think that any of these slight dif- 

 ferences are of much importance more especially as the specimens 

 retain the essential characters (of the funiculus, &c.) which mark 

 the L. auctus, and since moreover most of the Lichenophagi hitherto 

 detected seem to present some trifling secondary modifications indi- 

 cative of particular islands or localities, as will readily be seen by 

 a reference to their published diagnoses. So that I would not cite 

 this Gomeran insect as more than an insular phasis of the Hierro 

 one ; though I will (briefly) enunciate it below, giving it a sub- 

 specific name, in the event of further material proving it to be truly 

 distinct*. 



918. Lichenophagus tesserula. 



Lichenophagus tesserula, WolL, Cat. Can. Col. 364 (1864). 



Habitat Canarienses (Ten.), plerumque in subinferioribus hinc inde 

 vulgaris. 



* This Gomeran Lichenophagus, which I believe to be a modification of the 

 auctus, may be recorded in the following short formula : var. /3. amplificata 

 [an species?]. Paulo minor, pallidior profundiusque sculpturata, carinula 

 prothoracica abbreviate postica angustiore, acutiore, minus triangulariter nodu- 

 liformi, elytris magis ovatis, versus humeros facilius sive magis asqualiter an- 

 gustatis (i. e. minus oblique truncatis, angulis ipsis humeralibus acutius sub- 

 porrectis), sub squamis magis opacis. 





