OPATRID^E. 411 



islands of the Canarian Group ; and I likewise met with it on the 

 little islet of Graciosa, off the extreme north of the former. It 

 occurs beneath stones, principally at intermediate altitudes*. 



Fam. 76. OPATEIME. 



Genus 339. CNEMOPLATIA. 

 Costa, Ann. Ac. Asp. Nat. Nap. i. 146 [script. Cnemeplatia] (1847). 



1132. Cnemoplatia laticeps. 



Autocera laticeps, WolL, Cat. Mad. Col. 155, fig. 2 (1857). 

 Cnemeplatia laticeps, Id., Cat. Can. CoL 485 (1864). 



Habitat Maderenses (Mad.) et Canarienses (Ten.), in intermediis, 

 praBcipue sub recremento ad basin acervorum foeni sparso, ra- 

 rissima. 



A curious little insect very closely allied to the Italian C. Atropos, 

 of which it is just possible that it may be but a geographical modi- 

 fication. Still I believe it to be truly distinct ; for its small differ- 

 ential characters remain constant both in the Madeiras and Canaries, 

 which would hardly be the case if it were any mere local phasis of 

 the Mediterranean species. It occurs rarely, at intermediate alti- 

 tudes, in Madeira proper having been taken by myself on the 

 ascent from S ta Cruz to S. Antonio da Serra, by the late Mr. Bewicke 

 beneath haystack-refuse at Camacha, and by Senhor Moniz at " the 

 Mount" above Funchal. From the Canaries I have seen hitherto 

 but a single example, which was captured by Dr. Crotch (during the 

 spring of 1862) in Teneriffe ; though we may expect to meet with it 

 more abundantly, if searched for in the proper situations. 



* I have no shadow of evidence that the M. lineatum has occurred anywhere 

 except in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura (and on their small adjacent rocks), and 

 feel satisfied that it is peculiar to the eastern part of the Canarian archipelago ; 

 yet, as usual, I have been somewhat troubled by receiving from Paris an example 

 of it labelled " Teneriffe." It really would appear as if accuracy of habitat was 

 a subject totally uncared for in many of the continental collections ; for it is 

 grievous to observe how the species from these various islands, and some even 

 from the Cape de Verdes, are hawked about indiscriminately as Teneriffan, and 

 that too with a confidence bordering on pugnacity. If naturalists would but 

 consider the amount of falsehood which they wantonly propagate by this slovenly- 

 confusion of their localities, they would pause before attempting to define the 

 latter too rigidly on insufficient evidence. If in cases like the present one they 

 would but cite their specimens simply as " Canarian," instead of assigning them 

 to some particular island to which they do not belong, it would be far more satis- 

 factory, and at the same time less offensive to those who are labouring to arrive 

 at the truth on special questions of topographical interest. 



