STAPHYLINID^. 493 



to the sodden leaves of the Opuntia Tuna (or Prickly Pear) in spots 

 where they have been thrown away in masses, and allowed to rot. 



1360. Philonthus proximus. 



Philontlms proximus, WolL, Cat. Mad. Col. 189 (1857). 

 , Id., Cat. Can. Col. 573 (1864). 



Habitat Maderenses (Mad., P to S to ) et Canarienses (Ten., GomJ), in 

 stercore et sub quisquiliis minus frequens. 



Scattered sparingly over the Madeiran and Canarian Groups, where 

 it occurs for the most part in the dung of cattle and at rather low 

 elevations. It has been taken in Madeira proper and Porto Santo, 

 as well as in Teneriffe and Gomera. 



A Teneriifan specimen is now before me which, if its differences 

 are not mere sexual ones, might almost be the exponent of a sepa- 

 rate species. It recedes from Gomeran and Madeiran individuals 

 with which I have compared it in being a little smaller, with its 

 head just perceptibly less rotundate, its eyes less developed, its elytra 

 and limbs rather darker, its front feet more dilated, and its entire 

 sculpture (including the large punctures on the prothorax, and the 

 smaller asperated ones on the scutellum and elytra) somewhat less 

 coarse *. 



1361. Philonthus discoideus. 



Staphylinus discoideus, Grav., Col. Micropt. 38 (1802). 

 Philonthus discoideus, Erich., Gen. et Spec. Staph. 474 (1839). 



WolL, Cat. Mad, Col. 190 (1857). 



, Id,, Cat. Can. Col. 573 (1864). 



Habitat Maderenses (Mad.) et Canarienses (Lanz., Fuert., Ten., 

 Gom.), sub quisquiliis, passim. 



Although far from common, the European P. discoideus will pro- 

 bably be found to be well nigh universal throughout these Atlantic 

 islands ; where it occurs, beneath dung and vegetable refuse, at 

 low and intermediate altitudes. Hitherto however it has been taken 



* This particular state is what I alluded to in the diagnosis given in my 

 Canarian Catalogue, as follows : " Variat (rarius) antennis pedibusque paulo 

 obscurioribus." But since it is not impossible that it may prove ultimately to 

 be a distinct, though closely-allied species, I will further record it in this short 

 formula : 



Var. /3. fortv.natus [an species?]. Paulo minor et sensim levius sculpturatus, 

 capite vix minus rotundato, oculis minoribus, elytris, antennis pedibusque sub- 

 obscurioribus, tarsis anticis (an in utroque sexu?) latioribus. Long. corp. lin. 2^. 



I need scarcely repeat that the whole of these small characters may be sexual 

 ones ; nevertheless the specimen from which they have been compiled is hardly 

 likely to be the only male one, out of the many which I have examined. 



