MORDELLIDvE. 439 



tionally a trifle broader, and its scutellum somewhat longer ; in the 

 pubescence of its dark portions being rather more elongate and dark ; 

 and in its limbs being robuster, less abbreviated (as is particularly 

 evident in the antennae and tarsi), and of a much deeper black the 

 last antennal joint, moreover, being cylindric, instead of gradually 

 tapering as in that insect. Its elytra also are a shade darker and 

 perhaps a trifle less pubescent, and their extreme apex (instead of 

 being black) is concolorous with the rest of the surface." 



Fam. 86. MORDELLIMJ. 



Genus 366. MORDELLISTENA. 

 Costa, Faun, del Regn. NapoL, Mordell. 10 (1849). 



1210. Mordellistena pumila. 



Mordella pumila, GylL, Fna Suec. ii. 605 (1810). 



, Steph., III. Brit. Ent. v. 48 (1832). 



Mordellistena pumila, Woll., Cat. Can. Col. 515 (1864). 



Habitat Canarienses (Can., Ten., Gom., Palma), ad flores in inferi- 

 oribus et praesertim intermediis late sed parce diffusa. 



A European insect which is widely diffused over the Canarian 

 archipelago, though nowhere very abundant. It occurs on flowers, 

 chiefly at intermediate but sometimes at low elevations ; and there 

 can be little doubt that it is found in at any rate all the islands except 

 the two eastern ones. Indeed if (as is far from unlikely) the M. 

 sericata should prove to be but a Lanzarotan and Fuerteventuran 

 state of the pumila, we may then expect the species to be universal 

 throughout the Group ; for it has already been captured in all the 

 other islands except Hierro. 



1211. Mordellistena sericata. 



Mordellistena sericata, Woll, Cat. Can. Col. 515 (1864). 



Habitat Canarienses (Lanz., Fuert.), in locis similibus ac praecedens ; 

 forsan ejus varietas insularis. 



A Mordellistena which appears to take the place of the pumila in 

 the two eastern islands of the Canarian Group, and one which (as 

 already intimated) I feel far from certain is more than a modification 

 of that insect. It seems to differ from the pumila, merely, in having 

 its pubescence of a paler (or somewhat golden- cinereous) hue, 

 especially down the sutural region of the elytra ; which imparts to 



