190 Mv. T. Vernon Wollaston on the 



XI, On the Ptinidse of the Canary Islands. By T. Vernon 

 Wollaston, Esq., M.A., F.L.S! 



[Read 3id June, 1861.] 



Having lately been examining, with considerable care, the various 

 representatives of the Ptinidce which have been detected, up to 

 the present date, in the islands of the Canarian archipelago, I 

 propose in this Memoir, first, to describe them, and, secondly, to 

 offer a few observations on the structural peculiarities of the 

 Family. 



In glancing at the numerous published diagnoses of this inte- 

 resting group, it appears to me that the greatest misapprehension 

 has usually prevailed concerning the exact form of the oral organs 

 of its several members. The details given in the twelfth volume 

 of Sturm's " Deutschlands Fauna "■ are simply ridiculous, having 

 (so far as I can detect) scarcely any foundation in fact. Thus, 

 the upper-lip is drawn semicircular (instead of quadrate, and a 

 little excavated at its tip) ; the maxillae are represented as having 

 but a single lobe (instead of two) ; the ligula, which in the Ptinidce 

 is alvvays long and with the palpi inserted near its apex, is made 

 remarkably short, and with the palpi arising from its base (close 

 to the anterior angles of a transverse mentum !) ; the enormous 

 central-process which constitutes in reality almost the whole men- 

 tum is entirely omitted ; and no notice whatsoever is taken of the 

 great length, slenderness and arcuation which form such a marked 

 feature in the basal joint of the maxillary and labial palpi of all 

 the exponents of the Family. 



But if thus misrepresented in the "Deutschlands Fauna," we 

 should at least expect that the structural details would be mi- 

 nutely examined, and all doubts critically cleared-up, in any work 

 ■whose sole object it was to monograph so small a group ; and 

 accordingly we turn to M. De Boieldieu's treatise, in the " An- 

 nales de la Soc. Ent. de France," for information. But even 

 there also (despite the beautiful illustrations of the various species) 

 we are doomed to_ disappointment, — for not only are the generic 

 diagnoses brief to a degree, and imperfect, ut (though less so 

 than Sturm's) absolutely incorrect. Thus, for instance, he goes 

 nominally through the structural formula both of Hedobia and 

 Ptinus without so much as alluding to the great corneous process 



