071 the ' Travailleur ' Zoological Exploration. 37 



Prostenus luguhris. 



P. sat obscure uiger, corpore infra pedibusque cbalybeato-violaceis, 

 illo fortiter punctato ; prothorace valde transverse. Long. 5 lin. 



Hal). Brazil (Morro Velho). 



Black, rather opaque, body beneath and legs dark violet ; 

 head closely punctured ; prothorax much broader than long, 

 very closely punctured, each puncture with a small white 

 scale at the base ; scutellum cordiform ; elytra minutely 

 seriate-punctate, gradually broader posteriorly ; antennas black, 

 coarsely punctured, the joints only moderately dilated, eighth, 

 ninth, and tenth the most dilated ; femora moderately clavate. 



In outline and general appearance this species may be ap- 

 proximated to P. periscelis, but, inter alia, is at once distin- 

 guished by its broad prothorax. 



V. — Summary Report upon a Zoological Exploration made in 

 the Mediterranean and the Atlantic on hoard the ' Travailleur.^ 

 By M. A. Milne-Edwards*. 



Furnished with every thing necessary for scientific investi- 

 gations, the ' Travailleur ' quitted Rochefort on the 9th June 

 last, and only returned there on the 19th August. During 

 these seventy days of navigation, in which we traversed more 

 than 2000 sea-leagues, we were in harbour only for the time 

 strictly necessary for taking in coals and provisions at Cadiz, 

 Marseilles, Villafranca, Ajaccio, Oran, Tangier, Lisbon, and 

 Ferrol. AH our time was employed in making soundings and 

 dredgings ; but we shall refer in the first place only to those 

 executed in the Mediterranean, afterwards taking up those of 

 the Atlantic. 



The first methodical investigations made at a considerable 

 depth in the Mediterranean date from 1841, and are due to 

 the naturalist Edward Forbes, who confined them to the 

 vEgean, and did not get below a depth of 300 metres. In 

 1870 the 'Porcupine' only dredged upon the north coast of 

 Africa ; in 1875 M. Marion, off Marseilles, could not investi- 

 gate the sea beyond 350 metres ; and thus the greatest depths 

 remained almost unexplored ; and it was to their study that we 

 devoted a part of the month of June and the whole of July. 



* Translated by W. S. Dalla.'^, F.L.S., from the ' Coraptes Rendus/ 

 28tb November and oth December 1881, pp. 876 and 931. 



