134 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on certain Coleopterous Insects 



lato, oculis distinetis, in foveolis obliquis inmersis ; protliorace Bub- 

 sequali transverao, utrinque linea obsoletissima instmcto ; elytris postice 

 aeutis, utrisque lineis tribus delieatulis subelevatis longitudinaliter 

 distincte notatis. 

 Long, corp. lin. lj. 



The present insect is peculiarly interesting, as being the second 

 species hitherto detected of one of the most anomalous genera within 

 the whole range of the Coleoptera. The genus was established by 

 Mr. Westwood, in 1851, to contain a small (and then unique) beetle, 

 discovered by myself in Madeira in 1848, and to which he gave the 

 name of Cossyphodes Wollastonii. Subsequently it was ascertained, 

 by Professor Heer of Zurich, during his residence in the island in 

 1851, that the insect was an attendant upon ants, he having taken 

 seven or eight examples of it within the nests of (EcophtJiora pvsilla 

 around Funchal, — under which circumstances it has been since fre- 

 quently captured by Mr. Bewicke, myself, Mr. E. Leacock and others : 

 and I may add that I have taken it in similar positions in Teneriffe 

 and Gomera, of the Canary Islands. Hence the detection, by Mr. 

 Bewicke, of a new and very distinct species during his late visit to 

 the Cape of Good Hope becomes exceedingly important, though more 

 particularly in a geographical point of view, — as making it at least 

 probable that Cossyphodes is an African, and not merely an Atlantic, 

 form. In my Madeiran Catalogue, published in 1857, 1 called atten- 

 tion to the fact, insisted on by Mr. Leacock, that the eyes of the 

 Cossyphodes Wollastonii are not in reality qiiite obsolete (as inferred 

 by Mr. Westwood, and subsequently endorsed by myself in the 

 ' Insecta Maderensia ') ; but that they certainly exist, although in 

 a very rudimentary state, immersed within the small oblique line or 

 fovea with which either side of the head is furnished (on its upper 

 surface) posteriorly. And it is satisfactory, therefore, to see, that 

 this suggestion as to the peculiarity of the organs of sight is entirely 

 confirmed in the species from the Cape of Good Hope, — in which the 

 eyes are remarkably apparent, though to a certain extent buried 

 within this lateral foveolet, or slit. In their minor details, the two 

 species of Cossyphodes are very distinct, the unique C. Bewiclcii dif- 

 fering, not merely in its more apparent eyes and bituberculated 

 head, but likewise in its rather broader, more elliptic, depressed and 

 almost unkceled body, alutaceous surface, and posteriorly-acute elytra. 

 Its entire margin, also, especially behind, is more recurved ; its pro- 

 thorax is shorter, and nearly free from any appearance of longitu- 

 dinal costac (there being only the faintest possible indication of an 

 obsolete line on either side) ; and the elytra have only three (instead 



