from St. Helena. 215 



form, which must be regarded as the typical one, — the specimens 

 described originally by Fabricius (in 1775), in the Banksian collec- 

 tion, being from St. Helena. It is probably the common Coccinella 

 of the island. Four examples were taken by Mr. Bewicke (who 

 likewise captured it at the Cape of Good Hope) ; and I have seen 

 others in the possession of Mr. Fry. 



Fam. Opatridae. 



Genus Opatrum. 



Fabricius, Syst. Ent. 76 (1775). 



14. Opatrvm Hadroides, n. sp. 



O. latiusculum, nigrum, breviter fuhescenti-pubescens ; capite lato, ad 

 latera ante oculos rotundato-ampliato (nee angulato) ; prothorace brevi, 

 ad latera vix rotundato, apice baud profunde emarginato, angulis anticia 

 subrotundatis (nee longe porrectis acutis), angulis posticis acutis (sed 

 baud longe retrorsum productis) ; elytris parallelis, punctato-striatis, 

 ad humeros rectangulis. 



Long. corp. lin. 4§. 



Although unwilling to erect a new species in such an extensive 

 and obscure genus as Opatrum, yet, after a careful comparison of the 

 present insect with a long series of Atlantic forms (from Madeira, 

 the Canaries, the Cape de Verdes, and the Cape of Good Hope, — two 

 from each), I am induced to do so in this instance, since the remote- 

 ness of its island-habitat renders it a priori probable that it will be 

 found to be peculiar to St. Helena. The whole of the winged Opatra 

 (i. e. the Gonocephala of Solier) are moulded so nearly on the same 

 type, that small differences which might be disregarded in many 

 groups become important with them ; and, after a close examina- 

 tion, I am convinced that there are no characters so much to be 

 depended upon as the exact form of the dilated sides of the head 

 (immediately in front of the eyes), and the relative depth of the 

 emargination (accompanied with the greater or less prominence and 

 acuteness of the anterior angles) of the prothorax. The 0. Hadroides 

 is very nearly akin to a species which was taken by Mr. Bewicke at 

 the Cape of Good Hope ; but is altogether rather larger, broader, and 

 more parallel, its head is a little wider, with the lateral expansion, in 

 front of the eyes, more rounded (or less angular at the extreme point 

 of projection), its prothorax is less deeply scooped-out in front, with 

 the anterior angles (consequently) less porrected and more obtuse; the 

 hinder angles also are somewhat less produced, and its shoulders are 

 more rectangular. Although narrower and on a smaller scale, it has 



