16 , RHYNCHOPHORA. 
Subfam. RHY NCHITINA. 
RHYNCHITES. 
Rhynchites, Herbst, Natursyst. Kif. vii. p. 123 (1797). 
Lasiorhynchites, Jekel, Ins, Saund. i. p. 227, note." 
This genus consists at present of about 100 species, distributed in the continental 
regions of both the Old and New Worlds, but there are very few representatives 
described from South America. The North-American species are moderately numerous, 
but they are not yet very well elucidated. 
We have obtained a fair series of species from our region which may be arranged in 
three groups, besides an aberrant species which may form ultimately another genus. 
Jekel, when describing a species of one of these groups, proposed for it the name of 
Lasiorhynchites, stating, however, that the European Rhynchites pubescens was the type of 
the group or subgenus. This association is, however, an unnatural one, as E. pubescens 
cannot be placed in the same subgenus as ft. rufiventris, which is a member of a group 
peculiar to the tropical regions of the New World. So far as the species of our region 
are concerned Lasiorhynchites, Jekel, is therefore a synonym of Rhynchites. 
$1. Pygidium almost entirely covered ; rostrum nearly always much sculptured, 
but little curved. 
1. Rhynchites mexicanus. (Tab. I. fig. 15.) 
Rhynchites mexicanus, Gyll. in Schénh. Gen. et Spec. Cure. 1. p. 227°; Lec. Rhyne. N. Am.’ 
Hab. Norru America, Arizona ?.—Mexico !, Ventanas in Durango (forrer), San Luis 
Potosi, Hacienda de Bleados (Dr. Palmer), Santa Clara in Chihuahua, Aguas Calientes, 
Acapulco, Chilpancingo, Matamoros Izucar, Mexico city (Hége), Rincon, Tepetlapa, and 
Acaguizotla in Guerrero (H. H. Smith), Orizaba (2. D. G., H. H. Smith, Sallé), Puebla, 
Cuernavaca, Guanajuato (Sallé). 
This is apparently the least rare of the Mexican species of the genus, and a good series 
was procured by Herr Hoge at Aguas Calientes, and by Dr. Palmer at San Luis Potosi, 
but from each of the other localities we have only one or two examples. The species is 
no doubt a variable one, and if all the examples I am considering be really referable to 
one species, then it is a very variable one, and may probably not be distinct from the 
North-American R. e@neus. Most of the examples may be described as belonging to a 
large variety with slight striation of the elytra, and with great development of the 
interstitial punctuation, the colour being usually green; specimens of a blue colour 
with regular striation and serial punctuation on the interstices as described by Bohe- 
man are rare, and seem to be quite connected by intermediate specimens with the 
commoner form ; a black or blue-black variety occurs with still deeper striation; and 
