PlinidcB of the Canary Islands. 213 



erectis sat dense tectis, fasciis plerumque minus distinctis, 

 interdura fere omnino confluentibus sufFusis obsoletis. 

 Long. Corp. lin. 1| — 2f. 



Habitat sub lapidibus in ins. Canaria Grandi, rarissima : status 

 a et /3 ad Maspalomas et Arguineguin deprehensi, sed y ad are- 

 nosos juxta Las Palmas pertinet. 



After a careful examination of many specimens of this insect, I 

 have been forced to the conchision that variabih'ty in the length 

 and thickness of the hairs with which its elytra are beset, no less 

 than the inconstancy of its fascise, form (in combination) one of 

 its characteristic features. As regards the greater or less de- 

 velopment of its elytral markings (which, although in some 

 examples well-defined and bright, are in others entirely lost sight 

 of, and suffused inter se) there is nothing remarkable, for the 

 whole of these fasciated Ptinidce are eminently unstable in this 

 respect ; but I am not aware of any other instance in which the 

 erect hairs which stud the elytra are so extremely variable as they 

 are in the present species. In fact, were I not able almost to 

 complete the passage between the three states indicated above, I 

 might have regarded them as specifically distinct; but since such 

 is the case, and since also their other characters (apart from the 

 elytral clothing) are nearly identical, I cannot but consider them 

 as mere phases of each other. As regards the first two of them, 

 however (a and /3), they certainly are not local forms, for I have 

 taken them in company ; neither are they sexual, for they are 

 equally indicated in both males and females ; but with respect to 

 the third (y) there is a possibility that it may be a geographical 

 state, since I have hitherto observed it in only one locality (the 

 sandy region between Las Palmas and Puerto da Luz of Grand 

 Canary), and unmixed. The whole three of them seem to be 

 peculiar to Grand Canary — where, in April, 1858, I took the a 

 and /3 beneath stones in the vast sandy tract at Maspalomas (in 

 the south of the island), as also at Arguineguin: whilst the y (as 

 just stated) occurs in similar spots between Las Palmas and the 

 Isleta, in the north. 



§ n. Corpus squamosum (nee setosum) ; mandibulis apice paulo 

 magis obtusis. 



14, Piotes vestita, n. sp. (PI. VIIL fig. 9.) 

 P. nigra, squamulis fuscis demissis ubique densissime vestita ; 

 prothorace costis discalibus duabus valde elevatis (lateralibus 



