Fam. Jphodiada.
Aphodius, Illig.
A . l i v id u s , Oliv.—A light-brown; glossy Beetle, a quarter of an
inch, in length, taken amongst decaying oak leaves and herbage m
gardens on the high land. Mr. Wollaston says of i t : “ This widely
spread European Aphodius— which occurs throughout Northern and
Western Africa, and in the Azorean, Madeiran, Canarian, and Cape
Yerde archipelagos—ds an insect which easily becomes disseminated
through indirect human agencies (particularly the transportation of
cattle), and I feel satisfied has no connexion whatever with the
original fauna of so remote an Island.
Fam. Putelidce.
STJB-FAM. ANOPLOGNATHIDES.
Adoretus, Castln.
* A v e r s u t u s , Harold.—Well known at St. Helena as the Yine
Beetle, in consequence of the devastation it causes to the grape-vines.
I t is abundant, generally inhabiting the low, warm parts of the
Island, especially at The Briars, Maldivia Gardens, Southens,
&c., where it is a terrible pest, devouring the leaves and young
shoots of the vines so voraciously as very soon to reduce a vine from
full leaf to bare stems. As it hides away under stones and woodwork
during daylight, only emerging as night comes on, the
gardener finds it requires special exertion to keep it m check.
The first time I saw this insect was at The Briars, when I was
much puzzled to make out what the gardener was about groping
under the vines with a lantern in one hand and a soda-water bottle
containing hundreds of captured beetles in the other.
Fam. Dynastidce.
STJB-FAM. PENTODONTIDES.
Heteronychus, Burm.
* H . a r a t o r , Eab.—A very shiny black Beetle, half an inch
long and stout in proportion, very common on the upper central
land] where it seems to prefer the neighbourhood of grass-lands and
hayfields. Often it may be seen crawling lazily across the surface
of a roadway or roadside-bank, and frequently lying dead in numbers
along the highway-road. Mr. Wollaston writes of it : “ The South-
African II. arator appears to be common at St. Helena, where it was
taken by the late Mr. Bewicke in 1860, and subsequently in considerable
abundance by Mr. Melliss. I t is conspecific with the
insect characterized by Blanchard in the Entomological portion of
Dumont d’Urville’s ‘ Voyage au Pôle Sud sur les Corvettes 1 Astrolabe
et la Zélée’ (p. 105, pl. 7, f. 6) under the title of H. mnctæ-
helence.”
Mellissius (Bates), Woll.
With reference to this genus, Mr. Wollaston writes: “ The
structural features of the group bring it into close proximity to the
Australian genera Cheiroplatys and Isodon ; hut a reference to the
diagnosis will show that it is abundantly distinct from them both.
Unlike them, also, it appears, at any rate in one of the two species
described below, to have organs for slight stridulation ; and its prothorax
is apparently entire in both sexes (for as it is so in fifteen
males which are now before me, we may conclude that this is equally
the case in the opposite sex) ; and its anterior male tibiæ are not
enlarged as in Cheiroplatys. The Mellissii are practically apterous,
their wings being very small and rudimentary, and they seem to he
eminently fossorial. In its simple (or unimpressed) prothorax the
genus agrees with the European and African group Pentodon ; but,
apart from other differences, the members of the latter have their
organs for stridulation exceedingly conspicuous, occupying, however,
the central part only of the propygidium.”
*M . e u d o x u s , Woll.—A shiny chocolate-coloured Beetle, common
under the grass and surface-soil of pastures on the high lands.
*M . a d u m b r a tu s , Woll.—A species somewhat similar in size and
colour to the last, hut, being larger, more of a red-chocolate colour,
and less glossy, is easily distinguished from it. Both species are
plentiful, and occur in similar localities. Their larvæ, the large,
fat, whitish grubs called “ hog-worms,” play so important a part in
the destruction of the grass on some of the high lands, by feeding
on its roots,, that large patches, and sometimes whole fields, are laid
hare. Général Beatson writes thus :* “ There is a white maggot
* Beatson’s Tracts.
h