Omaseus Wollastoni

Thomas Vernon Wollaston published this drawing in his book ‘Insecta Maderensia’ in 1854. In the book he thanks Westwood for providing the illustrations, ‘Particularly, however, would I draw attention to the valuable help which I have received from J. O. Westwood, Esq., whose pencil has been so elaborately employed in the figures which I am thus enabled to attach, and by whom many of the minutest of the dissections were accomplished, — with a degree of delicacy, moreover, to which I did not myself at the commencement of this Work (though I have since succeeded in anatomizing the larger portion of them, likewise) lay claim.’

33. Omaseus Wollastoni. (Tab. I. fig. 9.). Wollaston wrote the following about this species:

‘The discovery of this very distinct and beautiful Omaseus is due to my friend Professor Heer of Zurich, who, during his residence in Madeira in the winter of 1850-51, captured several specimens from beneath stones on the Cabo Gerajao, or Brazen Head; in which locality it has been subsequently taken by M. Rousset. It is one of the few Coleopterous insects which appear to have escaped my observation during my repeated researches in these islands.’