150 
ST. HELENA. 
should have been unable to obtain a glance at the individual from 
which Prof. Westwood’s excellent figure which accompanied the 
diagnosis was drawn. Judging from the plate alone, I should have 
been contented to cite the following species (which I describe under 
the trivial name of vestitm ) as the true M. westicoodii, had not 
Chevrolat distinctly stated his insect to be glabrous, and not only to 
have its elytra less parallel (or more expanded behind the middle) 
and with the base and suture raised, but its tibiae likewise (as I 
believe) to be more curved and robust. Still it is not impossible 
that Chevrolat s example may have been an old and worn one, from 
which the rather sparing and delicate pubescence had been rubbed 
ofi, in which case there is at least an additional chance tbat it may 
prove eventually to be identical with my M. vestifus ; but, as the 
group is evidently rich in species, I am inclined to suspect that the 
‘raised suture’ and other minute characters (as recorded) will tend 
to separate the M westwoodii from its manifestly near ally.” 
*M. vestitus, W oil. — Slightly under one-eighth of an inch in 
length ; a rare species, and confined to the native vegetation on the 
upper land. 
*M. lacertosus, Woll.—A small dull black, very slight Beetle, 
an eighth of an inch in length, taken from the dry stems of Lacha- 
nodes leucadendron and other native trees on Diana’s Peak. 
*M. dimidiatus, Woll. — A small species, apparently not much, if 
at all, larger than the last, of which Mr. Wollaston writes : — 
Although with abundant distinctive features of its own, in certain 
respects it is slightly intermediate between the lacertosus and lucifugus, 
combining somewhat the size and outline of the former with the less 
opaque and more punctured surface of the latter ; yet neither in 
outline nor in sculpture is it in anywise identical with either of 
them. It has a faint tendency, under a high microscopic power, 
to be studded posteriorly with minute cinereous pubescence. Instead 
of being opaque, alutaceous, and tuberculated, like the lacertosus, it 
is, as in the case of the lucifugus, faintly shining and punctured. Its 
punctures, however, ai’e not so densely crowded together, or so 
coarse, as in the latter species ; and its elytra (which are scarcely so 
long as the anterior portion of the body) are more conspicuously 
striate, and with a single row of punctures down each interstice. Its 
legs are exceeding ly short, like those of the lacertosus-, and its prothorax 
is very largely developed— indeed, more so, perhaps, in proportion 
