Mr. T. V. Wollaston on the Canarian Malacoderms. 423 



I have found it necessary to establish two new genera in this paper 

 — namely, Micromimetes and Cephalogonia. The former has most of 

 the characters, and the external facies, of Attalus, except that the 

 front tarsi of its male sex are simple (the second joint not being pro- 

 duced on its upper side into a tectiform lobe), and also 4- (instead of 

 5-) articulate. The latter, on the other hand, is closely related to 

 Troglojjs ; but its anterior male-feet have their second joint con- 

 siderably longer (being composed, apparently, of two closely soldered 

 together), the third articulation of its antennas is almost as short as 

 the minute second one, its abdominal segments are each of them 

 broadly membranous along their apical edge, and the head of its 

 male sex is much more deeply (indeed very anomalously) scooped 

 out, and has the excavated portion furnished in the middle with a 

 (more or less evident) tubercle. 



It is somewhat extraordinary that although so many as 31 Malaco- 

 derms have already been detected in these islands, not one of them is 

 identical with any of the 9 species of the Madeiran archipelago. 

 Even the Dasytes illustris, which swarms on almost every rock of the 

 latter, has not yet been observed at the Canaries, where its place is 

 occupied by a totally different insect, the D. subcenescens. It is 

 curious, however, that both groups should have exactly three Mely- 

 rosomata, which, although perfectly distinct inter se, may be regarded 

 as representative of each other respectively. Of genera (apart from 

 the two uncharacterized ones already referred to), Malachius, which 

 exists in Madeira, has not been discovered hitherto at the Canaries ; 

 whilst Dolichosoma and Haplocnemus, which occur at the latter, are 

 apparently absent from the former. 



It merely remains to add that in Messrs. Webb and Berthelot's 

 voluminous work on the Natural History of the Canary Islands — 

 a publication remarkable for its gigantic proportions but meagre 

 and inaccurate contents — only one member of the great Section 

 Malacodermata is enumerated, and that one is wrongly named ! In- 

 deed the whole subject-matter of the present Memoir is there con- 

 veniently disposed of in seven words, — " On remarque quelques 

 petits Dasytes et Malachiens" 



As a slight aid to the eye, in judging of their respective habitats, 

 perhaps the following tabulation of the species may not be un- 

 acceptable. 



