.Mr. Kir by on Herhst's Genus Apion. 5 



Having mentioned the peculiarities which most strikingly cha- 

 racterize the species, I shall next inquire with what propriety 

 they may be regarded as belonging to a distinct genus. 



Linne considered all insects furnished with antennae seated 

 upon a rostrum (a few of his Attelabi excepted) as belonging to 

 one genus ; but whoever studies the species attentively, which 

 will arrange under his Curculh, will be convinced that this cir- 

 cumstance is characteristic of a section of the order of Coleopiera, 

 rather than of a natural genus. To name no other part, the an- 

 tennae, confessedly of the greatest importance iii determining 

 the genus of insects, vary surprisingly in this numerous tribe : 

 thus in Calandra, RhyHchanus, Lixus, Cossonns, and Curculio, of 

 Fabricius's Sysiema Eleidheratorum, and in the insects we are 

 now considering, they are subcapitate or terminate in a knob : 

 in BrenfuSy of the same work, they are moniliforrh: in Anthribus 

 and the genuine Attelabi, they are subclavate, with a distinctly 

 jointed clava: in Rhinomacer they are either setaceous or filiform; 

 and'iri Bratlh'ycer'us they grow gradually larger from the base to the 

 apex. Great differences are likewise observable in those that 

 have capitate antennae ; in some the terminating knob is jointed, 

 for the most part transversely, with an acute summit ; in others 

 it is solid ; of this description I remember noticing a very singu- 

 lar one in the cabinet of the ingenious Mr: Donovan, in which 

 this part, compared with the size of the insect, was immensely 

 large, transverse, and oblong*. Another and striking difference 

 takes place in antennae of this description: in those which I 

 consider as genuine curculids, the first joint is nearly as long as 



* In C. Pcrlntarum, Linn, the knob is of a singular shape; it is solid, calceoliform, 

 transverse, and connected with the stalk at one end : the upper part at first sight ap- 

 pears truncate, but if it Be-closely examined it will be found prismatic, or, in Linne's 

 words, Antennce' apice quasi lifariam truncatce. 



all 



