382 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on tlie Tarphii. 



probably require an a priori treatment rather tban an a posteriori 

 one. Principles such as these, which have been regarded hitherto 

 as axioms, are strictly "truths of reason," and rest upon too broad 

 a basis to be affected by our deductions (often very equivocal ones) 

 from a few isolated facts which may appear at first sight to contra- 

 dict them, and which may generally be met by an equal number of 

 " facts " (so-called) telling, or seeming to tell, a precisely opposite 

 tale. They belong rather to the very foundations of our belief, and 

 must be examined by analyzing our own minds. So that, if we 

 would sift this problem satisfactorily, we must needs begin with the 

 most elementary considerations ; for otherwise all subsequent argu- 

 ments, however carefully conducted, will only lead us deeper into 

 error, since it is clear that, if we set out with our backs upon the 

 truth, the further we go the more we shall recede from it. 



The following nine Tarphii (which I propose now to describe) are 

 peculiar to the Canaries, and were detected during my explorations, 

 in company with the Rev. R. T. Lowe, in those islands. Probably 

 there are many species yet to be discovered ; for the extensive sylvan 

 range on the western side of Hierro I have but just glanced at, whilst 

 the laurel-districts of Gomera and the remains of the ancient forest 

 of El Dorames in Grand Canary are totally unexamined. 



§1. Corpus plus minus distinete setosum. 



1. Tarphius simplex, n. sp. (PL XIX. fig. 1.) 

 T. angustulo-oblongus, granulis squamisque parvia fuscis parce vestitus et 

 setulis brevibus suberectis paulo pallidioribus tectus ; prothorace lon- 

 giusculo, aiigustulo, subparallelo (i. e. antice et postice vix angustiore) ; 

 elytrifl vix nodosis (nodis subobsoletis sed plerumque paulo rufescentio- 

 ribus) et tuberculis in seriebus longitudinalibus distiuctius positis ; 

 antennis pedibusque rufo-ferrugineis. 

 Long. corp. lin. 1J-2. 



Habitat hi sylvaticis editioribus Tenerinae, sub truncis ramulisque laurorum 

 prolapsis, baud inrrequens. 



The rather narrower and more strictly oblong outline of the present 

 Tarphius, in conjunction with its somewhat long and narrow pro- 

 thorax (which is scarcely at all expanded in the middle or constricted 

 behind), and its comparatively undeveloped and tisually more or less 

 obscurely subrufescent elytral nodules, and the tendency of its elytral 

 tubercles to be more decidedly arranged in longitudinal rows, will at 

 once separate it from the other species here described. It is not un- 

 common within the laurel-districts of Teneriffe ; I have taken it at 



