374 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on the Tarphii. 



the group has hitherto been detected, — preserving also similar letters 

 for their corresponding parts, in order to show at a glance that 

 this analogy, which has been so much insisted upon, is not an 

 imaginary one. 



Of the Sicilian T. globulus, however (fig. 2), I regret that I have 

 been unable to supply the oral organs ; for the example communi- 

 cated by Professor Westwood is unique in his collection, and I con- 

 sequently did not feel at liberty to dissect it. Of that species, there- 

 fore, I have been obliged to content myself with merely the general 

 figure. 



thorace breviusculo, convexo, integro (i. e. vix canaliculate), ad latera leviter 

 rotundato, ad basin utrinque (mox intra angulum) excavato ; elytris convexis, 

 integris (nee nodosis nee costatis), transversim subtuberculato-rugosis (vix 

 punctatis), versus basin et apicem obscure subrufescentioribus ; antennis pedi- 

 busque rufo-ferrugineis. 

 Long. corp. lin. 1£. 



Tarphius gibbulus, Germ., Fna. Ins. Europ. fasc. xxiv. tab. 4. 



, Ericb., Nat. der Ins. Deutsch. iii. 256, note 4 (1848). 



, Woll., Ins. Mad. 132 (1854). 



, J. Duval, Gen. des. Col. d'Eur. ii. 170, pi. 44. f. 210 (1858). 



This little Tarphius is smaller than any of the twenty-nine species as yet 

 detected elsewhere, except the T. Lowei (from Madeira and Porto Santo), — the 

 smaller examples of which descend to the size of the Sicilian specimen now be- 

 fore me, for the opportunity of re-examining which I am indebted to the kind- 

 ness of Professor Westwood. It is also remarkable for being sparingly clothed 

 with rather long and fine suberect hairs, instead of the strong bristles winch are 

 more or less present in most of its Atlantic allies, and which are exceedingly 

 robust in the Tarphiodes from Southern India ; and it has another peculiarity 

 (which I had failed to observe until now, and which I can scarcely believe to be 

 accidental), namely, that the base of its prothorax has a small excavation (which 

 I had regarded as a mere impression in my diagnosis given in the ' Ins. Mad.') 

 on either side, just within the hinder angle. Its other characters consist in its 

 oblong, subcylindrical, and convex body (its prothorax being particularly convex, 

 and with only faint traces of a narrow central channel), in its fusco-piccous hue 

 (there being merely a slight indication of suffused, ill-defined, subrufescent, cloudy 

 blotches just perceptible towards the base and apex of its elytra), and in its elytra 

 (which are quite parallel at the sides) being free from any indication of either 

 nodules or ridges. In the figure given by M. Duval, in Ins excellent ' Gen. des 

 Col. d' Europe,' the elytra are not made sufficiently parallel; the ground-colour, 

 also, of the entire insect is much too black, and the rufescent patches are im- 

 mensely too red and defined. Germar's admirable plate portrays all the cha- 

 racters of the species far more accurately. Even that, however, does not indicate 

 the elytral sculpture with sufficient precision ; nor does it notice the basal ex- 

 cavations (if indeed they be not accidental in the example now before me) within 

 either hinder prothoracic angle. Prof. Westwood's type is from the collection 

 of the late Mr. Melly, of Liverpool. 



