98 COLEOPTERA. 



142. MiCROPTiNTjs GONOSPERMi, Diival, Glanures ento- 

 niologiques, Cah. ii, 1860, p. 138 ; Wollaston, Trans. 

 Ent/Soc, i, 206 (1862); id., Cat. Can. Col., 240 

 (Nitpus); id., Col. Atlant, 215 (Microptinus); 

 J. A. Power, Proc. Enl. Soc, 1 Nov., 1869; Ent. 

 Mo. Mag., vi, 172 (Niptus), 



Dr. Power recoids about 12 specimens of this insect, taken 

 in company with Niptus crenatus^ by Mr. J. B. Syme, on 

 an old wall, in the Orkneys. 



Agreeing with Mr. Wollaston, that the existence simulta- 

 neously, in consecutive groups, of such generic names as 

 Niptus, Nifpus and Tipnus is calculated to cause confusion, 

 I have adopted for this insect the more euphonious title pro- 

 posed by that gentleman in his " Coleoptera Atlantiduin.'"' 

 Apart from the probability of such names creating mistakes, 

 they are the more worthy of suppression as being mere mean- 

 ingless anagrams of Ptinus. Duval founded his genus Nit- 

 pus (immediately distinguishable by its nine-jointed antenna: 

 and the four-jointed hind tarsi of its males) for the species 

 now being recorded as British, upon specimens received from 

 TenerifFe (where Mr. Wollaston found it abundantly on a 

 large Tanacetum), and Messrs. Crotch subsequently detected 

 it in the neighbouring island of Gomera. It is, in Mr. Wol- 

 laston's opinion, essentially Canarian, and one of the most 

 characteristic forms; but he has subsequently discovered a 

 second species in the Cape Verde Archipelago. The mem- 

 bers of the closely-allied Sphcericus appear to live chiefly 

 amongst lichens in the crevices of rocks. 



M. (jonospermi (for specimens of which, from TenerifFe, I 

 am indebted to Mr. Wollaston) is superficially of the same 

 build as N. crenatus^ though much smoother, and of more 

 even outhne ; and its sparse pubescence, which has a ten- 

 dency to form light interrupted bands on the elytra, causes 

 it at first sight somewhat to resemble a very minute female of 



