APPENDIX. 29 



Three examples of this Syncalypta were taken by the Messrs. 

 Crotch, during the summer of 1864, from under dry leaves in the 

 sylvan districts of Gomera. It may at once be known by its obovate 

 outline ; by its elytra (when their scales are removed) being granu- 

 lated and subopake, with their striae fine, and but lightly and remotely 

 punctured ; and by the last joint of its antennal club being rounded, 

 and not much developed. 



Fam. HISTERID^J. 



Genus ACRITUS. 

 Le Conte, Proc. Acad. Philadel iii. 288 (1853). 



I. Protlwrax lined (plus minus punctatd) ante basin impressus. 



Aeritus gemmula, n. sp. 



A. ovalis, castaneus, nitidissimus ; prothorace (oculo fortissime ar- 

 mato) parce et minute punctulato, per marginem ipsissimum 

 posticum serie punctorum leviter impresso necnon ante basin linea 

 subpunctata transversa (utrinque evanescente) distincte instructo ; 

 elytris versus humeros obsoletissime oblique substriatis ; sternis 

 parcissime obsolete subpunctulatis, prosterni striis integris, antice 

 et postice gradatim subacqualiter arcuatis, mesosterno subsemicir- 

 culari sed antice paulo truncate, ubique tenuiter margiiiato, sutura 

 postica indistincta ; pygidio et propygidio parcissime minute sub- 

 punctulatis ; antennis pedibusque piceo-testaceis, tibiis gracilibus 

 (anticis vix latioribus, extus minutissime setuloso-ciliatis). Long, 

 corp. lin. |. 



Variat elytris (oculo fortissime armato) parce et levissime oblique 

 substrigulosis. 



Habitat Gomeram, a DD. Crotch sub truncis laurorum putridis in 

 montibus excelsis captus. 



The diminutive size, oval outline, and highly polished surface of 

 this little Aeritus (which is of a bright castaneous, or chestnut, hue, 

 with the limbs paler) will at once suffice to distinguish it. Primd 

 fade indeed it is so unlike the ordinary members of the genus that 

 it was not until I had dissected it carefully that I perceived it to be 

 an Aeritus at all ; but the details of its mouth and feet (the hinder 

 pair of which have, as usual, the first and second articulations com- 

 pletely confluent inter se) are on the ordinary type, unless indeed 

 the terminal joint of its maxillary and labial palpi be a trifle longer 

 and more acute. The proportions of its 7-jointed funiculus, and the 

 minute inner lobe of its very short maxillae, are quite in accordance 

 with what obtains in the normal Acriti. Several specimens of it 



