428 HELOPIDJE. 



narrower and more cylindric in its prothorax being less transverse 

 rather less convex, more narrowly margined, more scooped out before 

 the hinder angles (which are consequently acuter), and somewhat 

 more densely punctulated, with the punctures a trifle smaller and 

 more confluent and in its elytral interstices being less wrinkled, 

 but closely and minutely granulated, and with the remote additional 

 tubercles which stud them posteriorly and towards the sides consi- 

 derably smaller and less developed. 



1176. Helops Vulcanus. 



Helops Vulcanus, Woll, Ins. Mad. 513, tab. xii. f. 1 (1854). 

 , Id., Cat. Mad. Col 158 (1857). 



Habitat Maderenses (Mad., Chao, Des., Bugio), sub lapidibus necnon 

 in rupium fissuris praecipue versus oram maritimam congregans. 



Common in the vicinity of the coast in Madeira proper and, es- 

 pecially, on the smaller islands of the Group, abounding on the 

 three Desertas, where it attains a still more gigantic size. It con- 

 gregates beneath stones and in the fissures of the exposed rocks, at 

 low and intermediate altitudes ; but I have not yet observed it in 

 any districts which are removed from the immediate influence of the 

 sea (unless indeed the H. asper be regarded as a small, more or less 

 sylvan, modification of it). 



1177. Helops asper. 



Helops asper, Kiist., Keif. Eur. xxi. (1850) [sec. Schauni]. 



confertus, Wott., Ins, Mad. 515, tab. xii. f. 2 (1854). 



, Id., Cat. Mad. Col. 158 (1857). 



Habitat Maderenses (Mad.), sub lapidibus corticeque laxo ubique 

 vulgaris. 



This is the common Helops of Madeira proper, abounding under 

 stones and beneath the loosened bark of trees at most elevations 

 though more frequently perhaps within the sylvan districts than 

 elsewhere. It is extremely variable, both in size and sculpture ; 

 and, as already stated, I do not feel quite certain that it is more, 

 in reality, than a small phasis of the H. Vulcanus or (which amounts 

 to much the same thing) that the latter is more than a monstrous, 

 sublittoral development of the asper. In my ' Ins. Mad.,' however, 

 I took some pains to point out the exact characters (such as they 

 are) which nearly always suffice for separating the two ; and I must 

 therefore (as originally) leave the question of their specific distinct- 





