member of the group which has hitherto been brought to lig h t: and
although equally brassy with several of the other species, its general
aspect is somewhat more in accordance with the sub-family Cosso-
nides than is the case with its numerous (and more or less eccentric)
allies.”
*M. chevrolatii, Woll. {Acanthomerus armatus, Boheman).—This
fine large species, a little less than one-third of an inch in length, is
found only in the native cabbage-trees, especially Lachanodes leuca-
ddndron, on the high central land, and is somewhat rare.
*M , conicollis, Woll.— A very glossy black Beetle, with a short,
ovate, thick body, about one-tenth of an inch in length, very
abundant amongst the indigenous cabbage-trees, and also in the
rotten branches and stems of oak trees at the lower altitude of
2000 feet above the sea.
*tvt. monilicornis, WolL-—A slightly more oblong species, but
very much resembling the last. I t is equally bright, black, and
glossy, and more abundant amongst the indigenous cabbage-trees on
the high land and the exotic plants at a lower altitude.
Pentarthrum, Woll.
*P. subcsecum, W oil.— This little blind Beetle, Mr. Wollaston
writes, “ possesses so unmistakable an affinity (in its five-jointed
funiculus and the general contour of its narrow, subcylindrical,
sculptured body) with the genus Pentarthrum (as known hitherto
through the P. huttoni from 'the west of England and. the P.
cylindricum which was found by Mr. Bewicke at Ascension) that I
cannot persuade myself that it should be separated therefrom, even
whilst equally aware that its obsolete eyes and scutellum would, of
themselves, tend to affiliate it rather with the little group Mesoxenus,
of the Madeiran and Canarian archipelagos. Yet I feel so satisfied
that it has more in common with Pentarthrum, than with Mesoxenus
that I have preferred assigning it to the former, even should my
doing so necessitate the diagnosis of that genus being so far widened
as to embrace representatives in which (like the Mesoxeni) the eyes
and scutellum are obsolete. Perhaps, in reality, however, it will be
found desirable, in the end, to treat it as the type of a yet additional
group, combining the external aspect of Pentarthrum with the
escutellate sub-eyejess body of Mesoxenus; but as these little Cos-
sonideous assemblages are already perhaps somewhat too numerous
I will not at present add another to their number, but will be
content to cite the very interesting weevil now before me as an
aberrant Pentarthrum in which there are no traces of a visible
scutellum, and none also (beyond the merest rudimentary puncti-
form specks—of the true existence of which I can scarcely satisfy
myself, even beneath the microscope) of eyes,”*
SUB-FAM. U HYNCHOPHORIDES.
Sitophilus, Schonh.
S. oryzte, Linn.—Mr. Wollaston writes of this small Weevil:
“ This almost cosmopolitan spotted Curculionid has apparently established
itself at St. Helena, just as it has in the Azorean, Madeiran,
Canarian, and Cape Verde archipelagos.’!
SUB-FAM. SYNAPTONYC H ID E S .
Nesiotes, Woll.
Mr. Wollaston says' the singular little Curcuhonids, for the
reception of which this genus was established, “ are so remarkable
that I was totally unable to come to any satisfactory conclusion as
to their precise affinities; but the invaluable and more recent work
of Lacordaire has given a position to the group which certainly I
had little anticipated, but which tallies well with the various details
of its structure. He regards it as related to the European Trachodes,
and still more so to Echinosoma of Madeira, in the latter of which
the funiculus is likewise only 5-articulate ; and he consequently erects
these three genera, together with Synaptonyx from Australia,
into a little sub-family (under the title of Synaptony chides) of his
sixteenth tribe, ‘ Tanyrkynchides.’ This arrangement brings it into
juxtaposition with one of the most anomalous and endemic of the
Madeiran weevils, the Echinosoma porcellus; and it supplies another
instance of that curious analogy by which so many of the most
extravagant forms of these widely scattered Atlantic islands are
mysteriously bound together.
* In a subsequent paper on the “ Genera of the Cossonidse,” Trans Ent. Soo. 1873, Pt. IV.
Oct. p. 525, Mr. Wollaston states that this insect is a new genus, which he describes under
the name of Pseudomesoxenus, and not a Pentarthrum.